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Isabella and Claudio (iii. i) 



SHAKESPEARE'S 



COMEDY OF 



MEASURE FOR MEASURE 



EDITED, WITH NOTES 

BY 

WILLIAM J. ROLFE, Litt.D. 

FORMERLY HEAD MASTER OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 



ILLUSTRATED 



NEW YORK .:. CINCINNATI •:• CHICAGO 

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 









Copyright, 1882 and 1898, bv 
HARPER & BROTHERS. 



Copyright, 1905, by 
WILLIAM J. ROLFE. 



MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 
W. P. I 



A 






PREFATORY NOTE 

This play, originally edited by me in 1882, is now 
thoroughly revised on the same general plan as the 
earlier volumes in the new series. 



CONTENTS 



Introduction to Measure for Measure 
The History of the Play . 
The Sources of the Plot . 
General Comments on the Play 

Measure for Measure 
Act I 
Act II 
Act III 
Act IV 
ActV 

Notes . 

Appendix 

Whetstone's " Promos and Cassandra " . 
Davenant's " The Law against Lovers " . 
The Time-Analysis of the Play 
List of Characters in the Play 



PAGE 

9 

9 

II 

12 

23 

25 

43 
72 

94 
117 

143 



223 
227 
232 
232 



Index of Words and Phrases Explained 



235 




Street in Vienna 







The Moated Grange 



INTRODUCTION TO MEASURE FOR 
MEASURE 



The History of the Play 

Measure for Measure was first printed in the folio of 
1623. No direct allusion to it in Shakespeare's time 
ha^ been found, and we have nothing to fix the date of 
its composition but the style and versification, with 
some minor points of internal evidence. The critics, 
however, have generally agreed that the play was 
written in 1603 or early in 1604. 



lo Measure for Measure \ 

Tyrwhitt and Malone conjectured that the following 
passages offer "a courtly apology for King James I.'s 
stately and ungracious demeanour on his entry into 
England : " — 

" I '11 privily away. I love the people, 
But do not like to stage me to their eyes. 
Though it do well, I do not relish well 
Their loud applause and aves vehement" (i. i. 67 fol.). 

"The general, subject to a well-wish'd king. 
Quit their own part, and in obsequious fondness 
Crowd to his presence, where their untaught love 
Must needs appear offence " (ii. 4. 27 fol.). 

Ward {^Hist. of Dram. Lit. i. 408) is "inclined to 
accept this conjecture, the more so that there is some- 
thing in the sentiment of these passages not ill accord- 
ing with the tendency towards shrinking from an 
unnecessary publicity, which we may fairly suppose to 
have been an element in the poet's own character." 

Malone also saw historical allusions in i. 2. 4: 
" Heaven grant us its peace," etc. ; and in i. 2. 82 : 
" What with the war, what with the sweat," etc. 
James had early announced his intention of ending the 
war with Spain w^hich was in progress when he came to 
the throne, and peace was concluded in the autumn of 
1604. The year before, as Capell pointed out, the 
'* sweating-sickness," or plague, had carried off more 
than thirty thousand people in London, about one fifth 
of the entire population of the city. 



Introduction 1 1 

Tieck, followed by Ulrici and some other critics, was 
led by the peculiarities of style and sentiment to regard 
Measure for Measure as one of the very latest of the 
plays ; but "the drama, in those very characteristics on 
which the theory is founded, most resembles Othello, 
Lear, the revised Hamlet, and in general those tragedies 
known to have been written between 1602 and 1607 ; 
while, on the contrary, its tone and fancy are entirely 
dissimilar from the pastoral beauties of the Winter's 
Tale, with the sprightliness of its gayer scenes, or the 
spirit of cheerful enjoyment which breathes in the 
mountain scenes of Cymbeline, both of them known to 
belong to a later period than that of Lear.^^ (Verplanck.) 

The Sources of the Plot 

The story, like that of Othello, was originally from the 
Hecatommithi of Giraldi Cinthio, published in Venice in 
1566. Whetstone's tragedy of Promos and Cassandra 
(1578) was founded on Cinthio's novel, and was proba- 
bly known to Shakespeare, though he owed little to the 
English play or the Italian tale. Whetstone " followed 
Cinthio very closely, in making the sister (the ' woful 
Cassandra ' of his play, the Epitia of Cinthio, and 
the Isabella of Shakespeare) yield to the governor's 
desires and her brother's pusillanimous sophistry — a 
degradation which Shakespeare has avoided by the 
introduction of Mariana, and the very venial artifice of 
Isabella, which Coleridge censures, but which is 
certainly, if a blemish at all, a very light one compared 



11 Measure for Measure 

with the intrinsic repulsiveness of making the heroine 
the wife of the guilty governor, and the supplicant for 
his life. The inferior characters of Whetstone are the 
same only in their habits and occupations — the paint- 
ing of their character is Shakespeare's own as much as 
that of the nobler personages, and the high moral 
wisdom which overflows in their dialogue. Isabella, as 
a character, is entirely his own creation," 

Whetstone, some years after writing his play, 
translated the original story in his Heptameron of Civil 
Discourses (1582). 

General Comments on the Play 

Critics have objected to Shakespeare's plot as an 
improbable fiction, but it strangely happens that some- 
thing much like it has occurred several times in dif- 
ferent ages and countries. One of these is the story of 
Colonel Kirke, in the reign of James II., related by 
Pepys and Macaulay. Another occurred in Holland, 
in the time of Charles the Bold, a century before Shake- 
speare's birth. Another, which may have been the 
foundation of Cinthio's novel, is said to have taken 
place under one of the old Dukes of Ferrara. 

The Angelo of the Netherlands, whose history is re- 
corded by several of the old Dutch and Flemish chroni- 
clers, was a brave and renowned knight, who was 
governor of Flushing ; and it was the wife of a state 
criminal, confined on a charge of sedition, who is 
tempted to yield up her honour on condition of receiv- 



Introduction 13 

ing from the governor an order to the gaoler to deliver 
her husband up to her. In the meanwhile, a prior 
order had been sent ; the husband was secretly be- 
headed ; and the wife received, on presenting her order, 
a chest containing the bloody corpse. Upon the duke*s 
visiting his principality of Zealand, she appealed to him 
for justice. The governor confessed his guilt, and threw 
himself with confidence upon the duke's mercy, relying 
on his former services and favour. The duke com- 
manded him to marry the widow, and endow her formally 
with all his wealth. She at first shrunk with horror 
from the alliance, but at last consented to the ceremony, 
on the prayers of her family, who thought their honour 
involved in it. When this was done, the governor re- 
turned to the duke, and informed him that the injured 
person was now satisfied. " So am not I," replied the 
duke. He sent the guilty man to the prison where 
his victim had died. A confessor was sent with him ; 
and after the last rites of religion, without further delay, 
the governor was beheaded. His new wife and her 
friends had hurried to the prison, and arrived there 
only to receive the bloody trunk in the same manner 
that she had received the remains of her first husband. 
Overcome with horror, she fainted, and never recovered. 
Measure for Measure^ as Verplanck (whose criticisms 
are unfortunately out of print and not accessible in 
most of the libraries) remarks, " bears the stamp of that 
period of the author's life, first noted by Hallam, when 
some sad influence weighed upon the poet's spirit, and 



14 Measure for Measure 

prompted him constantly to appear as ' the stern cen- 
surer of man.' I see no reason to doubt that this did 
not arise merely from a change of taste, or an experi- 
ment in dramatic art, but was, in some manner, con- 
nected with events or circumstances personal to the 
author, and affecting his temper, disposition, and moraL 
associations of thought. There is no part of the au- 
thor's own practical philosophy more true than that ' a 
man's mind is parcel of his fortunes.' He does not, 
indeed, like Milton, or Rousseau, or Byron, delight to 
make himself the prominent figure in all his intellectual 
creations ; yet these are not the less evidently coloured 
by the varying moods predominant, from time to time, 
during the changes of life. Few men could have 
more enjoyed life, or have more intensely relished 
the beautiful or the pleasurable, or more revelled in 
the ludicrous and the fantastical, than the author of 
that gay and bright succession of poetic comedies, 
from Love'^s Labour ''s Lost to As You Like It and 
the Twelfth Night. How striking is the contrast, 
in this respect, between these, and especially between 
the last — and to my taste the most delightful of all — 
and the Measure for Measure, austere in its ethical 
poetry, and sarcastic in its humorous delineations ! or 
between this last and The Merchant of Venice, where the 
same topics are often enforced, the same train of thought 
and even of imagery introduced ! They are the same, 
yet how different ! — like the same landscape seen in 
the sparkling sunshine, after a vernal rain, and again 



Introduction 15 

under a lowering wintry sky. The cause must remain 
in darkness ; but, to my mind, it appears manifest that 
the effect was not the result merely of altering taste or 
ripening judgment. Samson Agonistes does not more 
strongly testify to some great and overwhelming physical 
and political revolution prostrating and fettering the 
intellectual giant, in body and mind, than this play and 
the nearly contemporary writings of its author do to 
some similar moral cause, or some external calamity of 
life acting upon the moral faculties, and producing new 
combinations and results in Shakespeare's moral anat- 
omy of the human heart. It may have been some deep 
wound of the affections, some repeated evidence of 
man's ingratitude and heartlessness, possibly some 
mere personal calamity, bringing home to the brilliant 
and successful man of genius the living sense of the 
world's worthlessness, and opening to his sight the 
mysterious evil of his own nature. 

" Whatever, then, may have been the immediate and 
external causes of this signal intellectual phenomenon in 
our literary history, it is undeniable that this drama of 
Measure for Measure specially marks the period of this 
great climacteric of Shakespeare's genius, resembling 
those climacterics of the body which, according to the 
old notions of philosophy or superstition, come in their 
regular periods over man, working a strange alteration 
in the functions of his body, as different planets suc- 
ceed with new influences to rule his mind and his des- 
tiny. Although under its strong influence the poet was 



1 6 Measure for Measure 

now about to enter upon a nobler course of labour, and 
to teach the world deeper and truer lessons in the learn- 
ing of ' human dealings,' yet we cannot but rejoice that 
this solemn change of all the poet's lighter fancies into 
something still more ' rich and strange ' came not until 
after the quick and brilliant succession of his matchless 
poetic comedies had perpetuated the memory of his 
years of buoyant spirits, hope, joy, and untiring fancy. 
For although we often find in his later works a calm 
and serene spirit of enjoyment, such as we have before 
alluded to in the pastoral beauties of Perdita's conver- 
sation, and the mountain scenes of Cymbeline — though 
his comic sketches in his later dramas prove that his 
perception of whimsical or absurd character was as 
acute and active as ever, and his power of graphic 
delineation as vivid — yet even then there seems to be 
an absence of that personal abandonment of the au- 
thor's own spirit to the beauty or the humour of the 
scene to which he had before accustomed us. He ap- 
pears more as the great philosophical artist, depicting 
the very truth and nature of his scenes, and not, as was 
his former wont, as himself one of his own joyous 
throng, mixing in the plot against the bachelor liberty 
of Benedick — enjoying the frolics in Eastcheap as 
much as Falstaff or the Prince — or joining his own 
voice in the boisterous glee of Sir Toby and Sir 
Andrew. 

^^^\x\. Measure for Measure breathes a sterner spirit 
than belongs to the productions of either the earlier or 



Introduction 17 

the later periods. Dr. Johnson has said that its ' comic 
scenes are natural and pleasing.' Their fidelity to 
nature cannot, indeed, be denied. But if they please, 
they do so from their faithfulness of portraiture ; not, 
like the scenes of Bottom or Falstaff , and their compan- 
ions, from their exuberance of mirthful sport, or their 
rich originality of invention and wit. They, as well as 
the loftier scenes of the piece, are but too faithful 
pictures of the degrading and hardening influence of 
licentious passion, from the lighter profligacy of Lucio, 
the dissipated gentleman, to the grosser and contented 
degradation of the Clown ; and if these are all painted 
with the truth of Hogarth or Crabbe, they are depicted 
with no air of sport or mirth, but rather with that of 
bitter scorn. The author seems to smile like his own 
Cassius, ' as if he mocked himself.' Thus Elbow, in his 
self-satisfied conceit and pedantic ignorance, would 
appear, as some of the critics regard him, simply as an 
inferior version of Dogberry. But he is not a Dogberry 
in whose absurdities the author himself luxuriates, but 
one whose peculiarities are delineated with a contempt- 
uous sneer. Lucio, again, is a character unfortunately 
too common in civilized, and especially in city, life — a 
gentleman in manners and education, and of good 
natural ability, made frivolous in mind and debased in 
sentiment and disposition by licentious and idle habits 
— thus substantially not a very different character from 
some of the lighter personages of the prior dramas ; 
but he differs mainly from them because exhibited 

MEASURE FOR MEASURE — 2 



1 8 Measure for Measure 

under a very different light, and regarded in a different 
temper. The others are represented in his scenes as 
they appeared to the transient acquaintance, or the 
companions of their pleasures. But the poet looks 
deeper into the heart and life of Lucio, and portrays 
this man of pleasure in the same mood which governs 
the higher and more tragic scenes of this drama — a 
mood sometimes contemptuous, sometimes sad, often 
indignant, but never such as had been his former wont, 
either merely playful or imaginative. Thus it seems to 
me that, if his comic scenes excite mirth from their 
truth, it is a mirth in which the author did not partici- 
pate ; and their sarcastic humour assimilates itself in 
feeling to that of the stern and grave interest of the 
plot, and the strong passion of its poetic scenes. Char- 
acters, in themselves light and amusing, are branded 
with contempt from the degradation of licentious habits ; 
while the same passion, in a form of less grossness, but 
of deeper guilt, prostrates before it high reputation, 
talent, and wisdom. The intellectual and amiable 
Claudio, willing to purchase ' the weariest and most 
loathed worldly life,' at any cost of shame and sin, is 
strangely contrasted with the drunken Barnardine, ' care- 
less, reckless, and fearless of what is past, present, or 
to come.' Indeed, the higher characters are mainly 
discriminated from the lower ones, in this moral deline- 
ation, in that conscience is dull or dead in the latter, 
while it appears in all its terrors in Angelo and Claudio, 
and in all the majesty of purity in Isabella. There is 



Introduction 19 

little formality of moral instruction, but the secret work- 
ings of guilt and fear are laid open with the rapidity, 
suddenness, and brevity of un uttered and half -formed 
thoughts. That men of lax moral opinions should 
shrink with disgust, as some of his critics have done, 
from this too true a delineation of so common a vice, 
is not to be wondered at. It was less to be expected 
that Coleridge should have formed the judgment he has 
expressed on this drama, though there are not a few 
readers who will assent to it. He observes, in his 
Literary Remains : ' This play, which is Shakespeare's 
throughout, is to me the most painful, say rather the 
only painful, part of his genuine works. The comic 
and tragic parts equally border on the miseteon — 
the one being disgusting, the other horrible ; and the 
pardon and marriage of Angelo not merely baffles 
the strong, indignant claim of justice (for cruelty, 
with lust and damnable baseness, cannot be forgiven, 
because we cannot conceive them as being morally 
repented of), but it is likewise degrading to the char- 
acter of woman,' We also learn from Mr. Collier that, 
in the course of lectures on Shakespeare delivered 
in 18 18 (which were delivered from imperfect notes, 
and never written out), Coleridge pointed especially to 
the artifice of Isabella, and her seeming consent to the 
suit of Angelo, as the circumstances which tended to 
lower the character of the female sex. He then called 
Measure for Measure only the ' least agreeable ' of 
Shakespeare's dramas. 



20 Measure for Measure 

" This criticism, however httle laudatory, is still sub- 
stantially an acknowledgment of the severe unity of 
feeling and purpose which pervades the piece, and 
the impressive power with which it enforces revolting 
and humbling truths. These are the more conspicu- 
ous, because the dark painting of moral degradation, 
of guilt, remorse, and the dread of death, is not relieved, 
as is the poet's use elsewhere, by passages of descrip- 
tive beauty, or fancy, or tenderness. The only strong 
contrast which supplies their place is that of the severe 
beauty of Isabella's character, and the majestic wisdom 
and deep sentiment of her fervid eloquence. That in 
this sense the drama is not agreeable, and that it is 
even painful, is very true ; yet the degree of pain thus 
given is precisely that by which the intellect is most 
excited, and which is thus the source of the deep and 
absorbing interest excited by all gloomy yet true pictures 
of life, in its sadder shapes of crime and woe. Though 
the subject and the thoughts be in themselves repulsive, 
yet when, as here, we feel that the author is breathing 
through them the strong emotions of his own soul, the 
attention is fixed, and the sympathy enchained. This 
is the secret of Dante's power, and of that of the nobler 
portion of Byron's poetry. That Measure for Measure 
possesses much of this power, is proved by the fact 
that, in spite of the objections of critics of every degree, 
it has always taken a strong hold of the general mind. 
No one of the high female characters of tragedy has 
been found more eifective in representation than Isa- 



Introduction 21 

bella ; while there is perhaps no composition of the 
same length in the language which has left more of its 
expressive phrases, its moral aphorisms, its brief sen- 
tences crowded with meaning, fixed in the general 
memory, and embodied by daily use in every form of 
popular eloquence, argument, and literature." 

Ftirnivall concisely and aptly describes Isabella as 
*' ' a thing enskied and sainted, an immortal spirit,' 
Shakspere's first wholly Christian woman, steadfast 
and true as Portia, Brutus 's wife, pure as Lucrece's 
soul, merciful above Portia, Bassanio's bride, in that 
she prays for forgiveness for her foe, not her friend ; 
with an unyielding will, a martyr's spirit above Helena's 
of All ^s Well, the highest type of woman that Shakspere 
has yet drawn." 



MEASURE FOR MEASURE 



DRAMATIS PERSONM 

ViNCENTio, the Duke. 
Angelo, Deputy. 
EsCALUs, an ancient Lord. 
Claudio, a young gentleman. 
Lucio, a fantastic. 
Two other gentlemen. 
Provost. 

J-"-, [two friars. ■ 

A Justice. 

Varrius. 

Elbow, a simple constable. 

Froth, a foolish gentleman. 

PoMPEY, servant to Mistress Overdone. 

Abhorson, an executioner. 

Barnardine, a dissolute prisoner. 

Isabella, sister to Claudio. 
Mariana, betrothed to Angelo. 
Juliet, beloved of Claudio. 
Francisca, a nun. 
Mistress Overdone, a bawd. 

Lords, Officers, Citizens, Boy, and Attendants. 

Scene : Vienna. 




The Nunnery 



ACT I 

Scene I. An Apartment in the Diike^s Palace 
Enter Duke, Escalus, Lords and Attendants 

Duke. Escalus. 

Escalus. My lord. 

Duke. Of government the properties to unfold 
Would seem in me to affect speech and discourse, 
Since I am put to know that your own science 
Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice 

25 



26 Measure for Measure [Act I 

My strength can give you ; then no more remains 

But that to your sufficiency — as your worth is able — 

And let them work. The nature of our people, 

Our city's institutions, and the terms lo 

For common justice, you 're as pregnant in 

As art and practice hath enriched any 

That we remember. There is our commission, 

From which we would not have you warp. — Call hither, 

I say, bid come before us Angelo. — 

[Exit an Attendant. 
What figure of us think you he will bear ? 
For you must know, we have with special soul 
Elected him our absence to supply. 
Lent him our terror, dress'd him with our love, 
And given his deputation all the organs 20 

Of our own power. What think you of it ? 

Escalus. If any in Vienna be of worth 
To undergo such ample grace and honour. 
It is Lord Angelo. 

Duke. Look where he comes. 

Enter Angelo 

Angelo. Always obedient to your grace's will, 
I come to know your pleasure. 

Duke. Angelo, 

There is a kind of character in thy life. 
That to the observer doth thy history 
Fully unfold. Thyself and thy belongings 
Are not thine own so proper as to waste 30 



Scene I] Measure for Measure 27 

Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee. 

Heaven doth with us as we with torches do, 

Not Hght them for themselves ; for if our virtues 

Did not go forth of us, 't were all alike 

As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd 

But to fine issues, nor Nature never lends 

The smallest scruple of her excellence 

But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines 

Herself the glory of a creditor, 

Both thanks and use. But I do bend my speech 40 

To one that can my part in him advertise ; 

Hold, therefore, Angelo : — 

In our remove be thou at full ourself ; 

Mortality and mercy in Vienna 

Live in thy tongue and heart. Old Escalus, 

Though first in question, is thy secondary. 

Take thy commission. 

Angelo. Now, good my lord. 

Let there be some more test made of my metal 
Before so noble and so great a figure 
Be stamp'd upon it. 

Duke. No more evasion. 50 

We have with a leaven 'd and prepared choice 
Proceeded to you ; therefore take your honours. 
Our haste from hence is of so quick condition 
That it prefers itself and leaves unquestion'd 
Matters of needful value. We shall write to you, 
As time and our concernings shall importune. 
How it goes with us, and do look to know 



28 Measure for Measure [Act I 

What doth befall you here. So, fare you well ; 
To the hopeful execution do I leave you 
Of your commissions. 

Angelo. Yet give leave, my lord, 60 

That we may bring you something on the way. 

Duke. My haste may not admit it, 
Nor need you, on mine honour, have to do 
With any scruple ; your scope is as mine own, 
So to enforce or qualify the laws 
As to your soul seems good. Give me your hand. 
I '11 privily away. I love the people, 
But do not like to stage me to their eyes. 
Though it do well, I do not relish well 
Their loud applause and aves vehement ; 70 

Nor do I think the man of safe discretion 
That does affect it. Once more, fare you well. 

Angelo. The heavens give safety to your purposes ! 

Escalus. Lead forth and bring you back in happi- 
ness! 

Duke. I thank you. Fare you well. \Exit. 

Escalus. I shall desire you, sir, to give me leave 
To have free speech with you ; and it concerns me 
To look into the bottom of my place. 
A power I have, but of what strength and nature 
I am not yet instructed. 80 

Angelo. 'T is so with me. Let us withdraw together, 
And we may soon our satisfaction have 
Touching that point. 

Escalus. I '11 wait upon your honour. [Exeunt. 



Scene II] Measure for Measure 29 

Scene II. A Street 

Enter Lucio and two Gentlemen 

Lucio. If the duke with the other dukes come not to 
composition with the King of Hungary, why then all 
the dukes fall upon the king. 

1 Gentleman. Heaven grant us its peace, but not 
the King of Hungary's ! 

2 Gentleman. Amen. 

Lucio. Thou concludest like the sanctimonious 
pirate, that went to sea with the Ten Command- 
ments, but scraped one out of the table. 

2 Gentleman. Thou shalt not steal ? 10 

Lucio. Ay, that he razed. 

1 Gentleman. Why, 't was a commandment to 
command the captain and all the rest from their 
functions ; they put forth to steal. There 's not a 
soldier of us all, that, in the thanksgiving before 
meat, do relish the petition well that prays for peace. 

2 Gentleman. I never heard any soldier dislike it. 
Lucio. I believe thee ; for I think thou never 

wast where grace was said. 

2 Gentleman. No ? a dozen times at least. 20 

I Gentleman. What, in metre ? 

Lucio. In any proportion or in any language. 

I Gentleman. I think, or in any religion. 

Lucio. Ay, why not? Grace is grace, despite of 
all controversy ; as, for example, thou thyself art a 
wicked villain, despite of all grace. 



30 Measure for Measure [Act i 

I Gentleman. Well, there went but a pair of 
shears between us. 

Lucio. I grant ; as there may between the lists 
and the velvet. Thou art the list 30 

I Gentleman. And thou the velvet : thou art good 
velvet ; thou 'rt a three-piled piece, I warrant thee. 
I had as lief be a list of an English kersey as be 
piled, as thou art piled, for a French velvet. Do I 
speak feelingly now ? 

Lucio. I think thou dost ; and, indeed, with most 
painful feeling of thy speech. I will, out of thine 
own confession, learn to begin thy health, but, whilst 
I live, forget to drink after thee. 

1 Gentleman. I think I have done myself wrong, 
have I not ? 41 

2 Gentleman. Yes, that thou hast, whether thou 
art tainted or free. 

Lucio. Behold, behold, where Madam Mitigation 
comes ! 

1 Gentleman. I have purchased as many diseases 
under her roof as come to — 

2 Gentleman. To what, I pray ? 
Lucio. Judge. 

2 Gentleman. To three thousand dolours a year. 
I Gentleman. Ay, and more. 51 

Lucio. A French crown more. 
I Gentleman. Thou art always figuring diseases 
in me, but thou art full of error ; I am sound. 

Lucio. Nay, not as one would say, healthy, but so 



Scene II] Measure for Measure 31 

sound as things that are hollow ; thy bones are hol- 
low, impiety has made a feast of thee. 

Enter Mistress Overdone 

1 Gentleman. How now ! which of your hips has 
the most profound sciatica ? 59 

Mrs. Overdone. Well, well ; there 's one yonder 
arrested and carried to prison was worth five 
thousand of you all. 

2 Gentleman. Who 's that, I pray thee ? 

Mrs. Overdone. Marry, sir, that 's Claudio, Signior 
Claudio. 

1 Gentleman. Claudio to prison ! 't is not so. 
Mrs. Overdone. Nay, but I know 't is so. I saw him 

arrested, saw him carried away ; and, which is more, 
within these three days his head to be chopped off. 

Lucio. But, after all this fooling, I would not 
have it so. Art thou sure of this ? 71 

Mi's. Overdone. I am too sure of it ; and it is for 
getting Madam Julietta with child. 

Lucio. Believe me, this may be ; he promised to 
meet me two hours since, and he was ever precise in 
promise-keeping. 

2 Gentleman. Besides, you know, it draws some- 
thing near to the speech we had to such a purpose. 

I Gentleman. But, most of all, agreeing with the 
proclamation. 80 

Lucio. Away ! let 's go learn the truth of it. 

\Exeunt Lucio and Gentlemen. 



32 Measure for Measure [Act I 

Mrs. Overdone. Thus, what with the war, what 
with the sweat, what with the gallows, and what with 
poverty, I am custom-shrunk. — 

Enter Pompey 

How now ! what 's the news with you ? 

Pompey. Yonder man is carried to prison. 

Mrs. Overdone. Well, what has he done ? 

Pompey. A woman. 

Mrs. Overdone. What, is there a maid with child 
by him ? 90 

Pompey. No, but there 's a woman with maid by 
him. You have not heard of the proclamation, have 
you ? 

Mrs. Overdone. What proclamation, man ? 

Pompey. All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must 
be plucked down. 

Mrs. Overdo7ie. And what shall become of those 
in the city ? 

Pompey. They shall stand for seed ; they had gone 
down too but that a wise burgher put in for them. 100 

Mrs. Overdone. But shall all our houses of resort 
in the suburbs be pulled down ? 

Po7npey. To the ground, mistress. 

Mrs. Overdone. Why, here 's a change indeed in the 
commonwealth ! What shall become of me ? 

Po?npey. Come, fear not you ; good counsellors 
lack no clients. Though you change your place, you 
need not change your trade ; I '11 be your tapster 



Scene II] Measure for Measure ^^ 

still. Courage ! there will be pity taken on you ; 
you that have worn your eyes almost out in the 
service, you will be considered. m 

Mrs. Overdone. What 's to do here, Thomas Tap- 
ster ? let 's withdraw. 

Fompey. Here comes Signior Claudio, led by the 
provqgt to prison ; and there 's Madam Juliet. 

\^Exemit. 

Enter Provost, Claudio, Juliet, and Officers 

Claudio. Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to the 
world ? 
Bear me to prison, where I am committed. 

Provost. I do it not in evil disposition, 
But from Lord Angelo by special charge. 

Claudio. Thus can the demigod Authority 120 

Make us pay down for our offence by weight. — 
The words of heaven : — on whom it will, it will ; 
On whom it will not, so ; yet still 't is just. 

Re-enter Lucio and two Gentlemen 

Lucio. Why, how now, Claudio ! whence comes this 
restraint ? 

Claudio. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty ; 
As surfeit is the father of much fast. 
So every scope by the immoderate use 
Turns to restraint. Our natures do pursue, 
Like rats that ravin down their proper bane, 
A thirsty evil ; and when we drink we die. 130 

MEASURE FOR MEASURE — 3 



34 Measure for Measure [Act i 

Lucio. If I could speak so wisely under an arrest, 
I would send for certain of my creditors ; and yet, to 
say the truth, I had as lief have the foppery of free- 
dom as the morality of imprisonment. What 's thy 
offence, Claudio ? 

Claudia. What but to speak of would offend again. 

Lucio. What, is 't murther ? 

Claudio. No. 

Lucio. Lechery ? 

Claudio. Call it so. 140 

Provost. Away, sir ! you must go. 

Claudio. One word, good friend. — Lucio, a word 
with you. 

Lucio. A hundred, if they '11 do you any good. — Is 
lechery so looked after ? 

Claudio. Thus stands it with me : upon a true con- 
tract 
I got possession of Julietta's bed. 
You know the lady ; she is fast my wife. 
Save that we do the denunciation lack 
Of outward order. This we came not to. 
Only for propagation of a dower 150 

Remaining in the coffer of her friends, 
From whom we thought it meet to hide our love 
Till time had made them for us. But it chances 
The stealth of our most mutual entertainment 
With character too gross is writ on Juliet. 

Lucio. With child, perhaps? 

Claudio. Unhappily, even so. 



Scene II] Measure for Measure ^^ 

And the new deputy now for the duke — 

Whether it be the fault and ghmpse of newness, 

Or whether that the body public be 

A horse whereon the governor doth ride, i6o 

Who, newly in the seat, that it may know 

He can command, lets it straight feel the spur ; 

Whether the tyranny be in his place. 

Or in his eminence that fills it up, 

I stagger in ; — but this new governor 

Awakes me all the enrolled penalties 

Which have, like unscour'd armour, hung by the wall 

So long that nineteen zodiacs have gone round 

And none of them been worn, and for a name 

Now puts the drowsy and neglected act 170 

Freshly on me ; 't is surely for a name. 

Lucio. I warrant it is ; and thy head stands so 
tickle on thy shoulders that a milkmaid, if she be in 
love, may sigh it off. Send after the duke and ap- 
peal to him. 

Claudio. I have done so, but he 's not to be found. 
I prithee, Lucio, do me this kind service. 
This day my sister should the cloister enter 
And there receive her approbation. 
Acquaint her with the danger of my state ; 180 

Implore her, in my voice, that she make friends 
To the strict deputy ; bid herself assay him. 
I have great hope in that, for in her youth 
There is a prone and speechless dialect 
Such as move men ; beside, she hath prosperous art 



^6 Measure for Measure [Act i 

When she will play with reason and discourse, 
And well she can persuade. 

Lucio. I pray she may ; as well for the encourage- 
ment of the like, which else would stand under griev- 
ous imposition, as for the enjoying of thy life, who I 
would be sorry should be thus foolishly lost at a 
game of tick-tack. I '11 to her. 192 

Claudio. I thank you, good friend Lucio. 

Lucio. Within two hours. 

Claudio. Come, officer, away ! \_Exeunt. 

Scene III. A Monastery 
Enter Duke and Friar Thomas 

Duke. No, holy father, throw away that thought ; 
Believe not that the dribbling dart of love 
Can pierce a complete bosom. Why I desire thee 
To give me secret harbour, hath a purpose 
More grave and wrinkled than the aims and ends 
Of burning youth. 

Friar Tho?nas. May your grace speak of it ? 

Duke. My holy sir, none better knows than you 
How I have ever lov'd the life remov'd. 
And held in idle price to haunt assemblies 
Where youth and cost and witless bravery keeps. 10 
I have deliver 'd to Lord Angelo, 
A man of stricture and firm abstinence. 
My absolute power and place here in Vienna, 
And he supposes me travell'd to Poland ; 



Scene III] Measure for Measure ' 37 

For so I have strew'd it in the common ear, 
And so it is receiv'd. Now, pious sir, 
You will demand of me why I do this ? 

Friar Thomas. Gladly, my lord. 

Duke. We have strict statutes and most biting laws, 
The needful bits and curbs to headstrong steeds, 20 

Which for this fourteen years we have let sleep. 
Even like an o'ergrown lion in a cave 
That goes not out to prey. Now, as fond fathers, 
Having bound up the threatening twigs of birch, 
Only to stick it in their children's sight 
For terror, not to use, in time the rod 
Becomes more mock'd than fear'd, so our decrees, 
Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead. 
And liberty plucks justice by the nose ; 
The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart 30 

Goes all decorum. 

Friar Thomas. It rested in your grace 
To unloose this tied-up justice when you pleas 'd ; 
And it in you more dreadful would have seem'd 
Than in Lord Angelo. 

Duke. I do fear, too dreadful. 

Sith 't was my fault to give the people scope, 
'T would be my tyranny to strike and gall them 
For what I bid them do ; for we bid this be done 
When evil deeds have their permissive pass 
And not the punishment. Therefore, indeed, my father, 
I have on Angelo impos'd the office, 40 

Who may, in the ambush of my name, strike home, 



38 Measure for Measure [Act I 

And yet my nature never in the fight 

To do me slander. And to behold his sway, 

I will, as 't were a brother of your order. 

Visit both prince and people ; therefore, I prithee, 

Supply me with the habit, and instruct me 

How I may formally in person bear me 

Like a true friar. More reasons for this action 

At our more leisure shall I render you ; 

Only, this one : Lord Angelo is precise, 50 

Stands at a guard with envy, scarce confesses 

That his blood flows or that his appetite 

Is more to bread than stone ; hence shall we see, 

If power change purpose, what our seemers be. 

[Exeunt. 

Scene IV. A Nunnery 
Enter Isabella and Francisca 

Isabella. And have you nuns no farther privileges ? 

Francisca. Are not these large enough ? 

Isabella. Yes, truly ; I speak not as desiring more, 
But rather wishing a more strict restraint 
Upon the sisterhood, the votarists of Saint Clare. 

Lucio. [ Within'\ Ho ! Peace be in this place ! 

Isabella. Who 's that which calls ? 

Francisca. It is a man's voice. Gentle Isabella, 
Turn you the key, and know his business of him. 
You may, I may not ; you are yet unsworn. 
When you have vow'd, you must not speak with men 



Scene IV] Measure for Measure 39 

But in the presence of the prioress ; u 

Then, if you speak, you must not show your face, 
Or, if you show your face, you must not speak. 
He calls again ; I pray you, answer him. [Exit. 

Isabella. Peace and prosperity ! Who is 't that calls ? 

Enter luVCio 

Lucio. Hail, virgin, if you be, as those cheek-roses 
Proclaim you are no less ! Can you so stead me 
As bring me to the sight of Isabella, 
A novice of this place and the fair sister 
To her unhappy brother Claudio ? 20 

Isabella. Why her unhappy brother ? let me ask. 
The rather for I now must make you know 
I am that Isabella and his sister. 

Lucio. Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets 
you. 
Not to be weary with you, he 's in prison. 

Isabella. Woe me ! for what ? 

Lucio. For that which, if myself might be his judge. 
He should receive his punishment in thanks. 
He hath got his friend with child. 

Isabella. Sir, make me not your story. 

Lucio, It is true. 30 

I would not — though 't is my familiar sin 
With maids to seem the lapwing and to jest. 
Tongue far from heart — play wdth all virgins so. 
I hold you as a thing enskied and sainted, 
By your renouncement an immortal spirit, 



40 Measure for Measure [Act I 

And to be talk'd with in sincerity, 
As with a saint. 

Isabella. You do blaspheme the good in mocking me. 

Lucio. Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, 't is 
thus : 
Your brother and his lover have embrac'd ; 40 

As those that feed grow full, as blossoming time 
That from the seedness the bare fallow brings 
To teeming foison, even so her plenteous womb 
Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry. 

Isabella. Some one with child by him ? My cousin 
JuHet ? 

Lucio. Is she your cousin ? 

Isabella. Adoptedly ; as school-maids change their 
names 
By vain though apt affection. 

Lucio. She it is. 

Isabella. O, let him marry her ! 

Lucio. This is the point. 

The duke is very strangely gone from hence, 50 

Bore many gentlemen, myself being one, 
In hand and hope of action ; but we do learn, 
By those that know the very nerves of state, 
His givings-out were of an infinite distance 
From his true-meant design. Upon his place, 
And with full line of his authority. 
Governs Lord Angelo ; a man whose blood 
Is very snow-broth, one who never feels 
The wanton stings and motions of the sense, 



Scene IV] Measure for Measure 41 

But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge 60 

With profits of the mind, study and fast. 
He — to give fear to use and liberty, 
Which have for long run by the hideous law, 
As mice by lions — hath pick'd out an act 
Under whose heavy sense your brother's life 
Falls into forfeit ; he arrests him on it, 
And follows close the rigour of the statute. 
To make him an example. All hope is gone. 
Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer 
To soften Angelo ; and that 's my pith of business 70 
'Twixt you and your poor brother, 
r Isabella. Doth he so seek his life ? 

Lucio. Has censur'd him 

Already ; and, as I hear, the provost hath 
A warrant for his execution. 

Isabella. Alas ! what poor ability 's in me 
To do him good ? 

Lucio. Assay the power you have. 

Isabella. My power ? Alas, I doubt — 

Lucio. Our doubts are traitors, 

And make us lose the good we oft might win 
By fearing to attempt. Go to Lord Angelo, 
And let him learn to know, when maidens sue, 80 

Men give like gods ; but when they weep and kneel, 
All their petitions are as freely theirs 
As they themselves would owe them. 

Isabella. I '11 see what I can do. 

Lucio, But speedily. 



42 Measure for Measure [Act i 

Isabella. I will about it straight, 
No longer staying but to give the mother 
Notice of my affair. I humbly thank you. 
Commend me to my brother ; soon at night 
I '11 send him certain word of my success. 

Lucio. I take my leave of you. 

Isabella. Good sir, adieu. \Exeunt. 




Angelo's House 



ACT II 

Scene I. A hall in Angelo^s House 

Enter Angelo, Escalus, and a Justice, Provost, 
Officers, and other Attendants, behind 

Angelo. We must not make a scarecrow of the law, 
Setting it up to fear the birds of prey, 

43 



44 Measure for Measure [Act II 

And let it keep one shape till custom make it 
Their perch and not their terror. 

Escalus. Ay, but yet 

Let us be keen, and rather cut a little 
Than fall and bruise to death. Alas, this gentleman 
Whom I would save had a most noble father ! 
Let but your honour know, 
Whom I believe to be most strait in virtue, 
That, in the working of your own affections, lo 

Had time coher'd with place, or place with wishing. 
Or that the resolute acting of your blood 
Could have attain'd the effect of your own purpose, 
Whether you had not sometime in your life 
Err'd in this point which now you censure him. 
And pull'd the law upon you. 

Angela. 'T is one thing to be tempted, Escalus, 
Another thing to fall. I not deny, 
The jury, passing on the prisoner's life, 
May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two 20 

Guiltier than him they try. What 's open made to 

justice, 
That justice seizes ; what knows the law 
That thieves do pass on thieves ? 'T is very pregnant, 
The jewel that we find, we stoop and take 't 
Because we see it ; but what we do not see 
We tread upon and never think of it. 
You may not so extenuate his offence 
For I have had such faults ; but rather tell me, 
When I that censure him do so offend, 



Scene I] Measure for Measure 45 

Let mine own judgment pattern out my death, 30 

And nothing come in partial. Sir, he must die. 

Escalics. Be it as your wisdom will. 

Angela. Where is the provost ? 

Provost. Here, if it like your honour. 

Angelo. See that Claudio 

Be executed by nine to-morrow morning. 
Bring him his confessor, let him be prepar'd, 
For that 's the utmost of his pilgrimage. \^Exit Provost. 

Escalus. [Aside] Well, heaven forgive him ! and for- 
give us all ! 
Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall ; 
Some run from brakes of vice and answer none ; 
And some condemned for a fault alone. 40 

Enter Elbow, and Officers with Froth and Pompey 

Elbow. Come, bring them away. If these be 
good people in a commonweal that do nothing but 
use their abuses in common houses, I know no law ; 
bring them away. 

Angelo. How now, sir ! What 's your name ? and 
what 's the matter ? 

Elbow. If it please your honour, I am the poor 
duke's constable, and my name is Elbow. I do lean 
upon justice, sir, and do bring in here before your 
good honour two notorious benefactors. 50 

Angelo. Benefactors ? Well, what benefactors are 
they ? are they not malefactors ? 

Elbow. If it please your honour, I know not well 



46 Measure for Measure [Act il 

what they are ; but precise villains they are, that I 
am sure of, and void of all profanation in the world 
that good Christians ought to have. 

Escalus. This comes off well ; here 's a wise officer. 

Angela. Go to ; what quality are they of ? Elbow 
is your name ? why dost thou not speak, Elbow ? 

Pompey. He cannot, sir ; he 's out at elbow. 60 

Angelo. What are you, sir ? 

Elbow. He, sir ! a tapster, sir, — parcel-bawd ; 
one that serves a bad woman, whose house, sir, was, 
as they say, plucked down in the suburbs ; and now 
she professes a hot-house, which I think, is a very ill 
house too. 

Escalus. How know you that ? 

Elbow. My wife, sir, whom I detest before heaven 
and your honour, — 

Escalus. How ? thy wife ? 70 

Elbow. Ay, sir ; whom, I thank heaven, is an 
honest woman, — 

Escahis. Dost thou detest her therefore ? 

Elbow. I say, sir, I will detest myself also, as well 
as she, that this house, if it be not a bawd's house, it 
is pity of her life, for it is a naughty house. 

Escalus. How dost thou know that, constable ? 

Elbow. Marry, sir, by my wife ; who, if she had 
been a woman cardinally given, might have been 
accused in fornication, adultery, and all uncleanli- 
ness there. 81 

Escahcs. By the woman's means ? 



Scene I] Measure for Measure 47 

Elbow. Ay, sir, by Mistress Overdone's means ; 
but as she spit in his face, so she defied him. 

Ponipey. Sir, if it please your honour, this is not 
so. 

Elbow. Prove it before these varlets here, thou 
honourable man ; prove it. 

Escalus. Do you hear how he misplaces ? 89 

Pompey. Sir, she came in great with child, and 
longing, saving your honour's reverence, for stewed 
prunes ; sir, we had but two in the house, which at 
that very distant time stood, as it were, in a fruit- 
dish, a dish of some three-pence. Your honours 
have seen such dishes ; they are not China dishes, 
but very good dishes, — 96 

Escalus. Go to, go to ; no matter for the dish, sir. 

Pompey. No, indeed, sir, not of a pin ; you are 
therein in the right : but to the point. As I say, this 
Mistress Elbow, being, as I say, with child, and being 
great-bellied, and longing, as I said, for prunes, and 
having but two in the dish, as I said. Master Froth 
here, this very man, having eaten the rest, as I said, 
and, as I say, paying for them very honestly, — for, as 
you know, Master Froth, I could not give you three- 
pence again. 106 

Froth. No, indeed. 

Pompey. Very well ; you being then, if you be 
remembered, cracking the stones of the foresaid 
prunes, — 

Froth. Ay, so I did indeed. 



48 Measure for Measure [Act 11 

Pompey. Why, very well ; I telling you then, if 
you be remembered, that such a one and such a one 
were past cure of the thing you wot of, unless they 
kept very good diet, as I told you, — 

Froth. All this is true. 

Po7npey. Why, very well, then, — 

Escalus. Come, you are a tedious fool ; to the 
purpose. What was done to Elbow's wife, that he 
hath cause to complain of ? Come me to what was 
done to her. 121 

Pompey. Sir, your honour cannot come to that yet. 

Escalus. No, sir, nor I mean it not. 

Pompey. Sir, but you shall come to it, by your 
honour's leave. And, I beseech you, look into Mas- 
ter Froth here, sir ; a man of fourscore pound a 
year, whose father died at Hallowmas. — Was 't not 
at Hallowmas, Master Froth ? 

Froth. All-hallownd eve. 129 

Pompey. Why, very well ; I hope here be truths. 
He, sir, sitting, as I say, in a lower chair, sir, — 
't was in the Bunch of Grapes, where indeed you 
have a delight to sit, have you not ? 

Froth. I have so ; because it is an open room and 
good for winter. 

Pompey. Why, very well, then ; I hope here be 
truths. 

Angelo. This will last out a night in Russia 
When nights are longest there. I '11 take my leave, 
And leave you to the hearing of the cause, 140 



Scene I] Measure for Measure 49 

Hoping you '11 find good cause to whip them all. 

Escalus. I think no less. Good morrow to your 
lordship. — \Exit Angela, 

Now, sir, come on ; what was done to Elbow's wife, 
once more ? 

Pompey. Once, sir? there was nothing done to 
her once. 

Elbow. I beseech you, sir, ask him what this man 
did to my wife. 

Pompey. I beseech your honour, ask me. 

Escalus. Well, sir, what did this gentleman to 
her? 151 

Pompey. I beseech you, sir, look in this gentle- 
man's face. — Good Master Froth, look upon his 
honour ; 't is for a good purpose, — Doth your hon- 
our mark his face ? 

Escalus. Ay, sir, very well. 

Pompey. Nay, I beseech you, mark it well. 

Escalus. Well, I do so. 

Pompey. Doth your honour see any harm in his 
face ? 160 

Escalus. Why, no. 

Pompey. I '11 be supposed upon a book, his face is 
the worst thing about him. Good, then ; if his face 
be the worst thing about him, how could Master 
Froth do the constable's wife any harm ? I would 
know that of your honour. 

Escalus. He 's in the right. Constable, what say 
you to it ? 

MEASURE FOR MEASURE — 4 



50 Measure for Measure [Act ll 

Elbow. First, an it like you, the house is a 
respected house ; next, this is a respected fellow, 
and his mistress is a respected woman. 171 

Fompey. By this hand, sir, his wife is a more 
respected person than any of us all. 

Elbow. Varlet, thou liest ; thou liest, wicked 
varlet ! the time is yet to come that she was ever 
respected with man, woman, or child. 

Fompey. Sir, she was respected with him before 
he married with her. 

Escalus. Which is the wiser here ? Justice or 
Iniquity ? — Is this true ? 180 

Elbow. O thou caitiff ! O thou varlet ! O thou 
wicked Hannibal ! I respected with her before I was 
married to her ! — If ever I was respected with her, 
or she with me, let not your worship think me the 
poor duke's officer. — Prove this, thou wicked Han- 
nibal, or I '11 have mine action of battery on thee. 

Escalus. If he took you a box o' the ear, you 
might have your action of slander too. 

Elbow. Marry, I thank your good worship for it. 
What is 't your worship's pleasure I shall do with 
this wicked caitiff ? 191 

Escalus. Truly, officer, because he hath some of- 
fences in him that thou wouldst discover if thou 
couldst, let him continue in his courses till thou 
knowest what they are. 

Elbow. Marry, I thank your worship for it. — 
Thou seest, thou wicked varlet, now, what 's come 



Scene I] Measure for Measure 51 

upon thee : thou art to continue now, thou varlet ; 
thou art to continue. 

Escalus. Where were you born, friend ? 200 

Froth. Here in Vienna, sir. 

Escalus. Are you of fourscore pounds a year ? 

Froth. Yes, an 't please you, sir. 

Escatus. So. — What trade are you of, sir ? 

Pompey. A tapster ; a poor widow's tapster. 

Escalus. Your mistress' name ? 

Pompey. Mistress Overdone. 

Escalus. Hath she had any more than one husband ? 

Pompey. Nine, sir ; Overdone by the last. 209 

Escalus. Nine! — Come hither to me, Master 
Froth. Master Froth, I would not have you ac- 
quainted with tapsters ; they will draw you, Master 
Froth, and you will hang them. Get you gone, and 
let me hear no more of you. 

Froth. I thank your worship. For mine own part, 
I never come into any room in a taphouse but I am 
drawn in. 

Escalus. Well, no more of it. Master Froth : 
farewell. — \Exit Froth.'] Come you hither to me, 
Master Tapster. What 's your name. Master Tapster ? 

Pompey. Pompey. 221 

Escalus. What else ? 

Pompey. Bum, sir. 

Escalus. Troth, and your bum is the greatest 
thing about you ; so that in the beastliest sense you 
are Pompey the Great. Pompey, you are partly a 



52 Measure for Measure [Act II 

bawd, Pompey, howsoever you colour it in being a 
tapster, are you not ? come, tell me true ; it shall be 
the better for you. 

Pompey. Truly, sir, I am a poor fellow that would 
live. 231 

Escalus. How would you live, Pompey ? by being 
a bawd ? What do you think of the trade, Pompey ? 
is it a lawful trade ? 

Pompey. If the law would allow it, sir. 

Escalus. But the law will not allow it, Pompey ; 
nor it shall not be allowed in Vienna. 

Pompey. Does your worship mean to geld and spay 
all the youth of the city ? 

Escalus. No, Pompey. 240 

Pompey. Truly, sir, in my poor opinion, they will 
to 't then. If your worship will take order for the 
drabs and the knaves, you need not to fear the bawds. 

Escalus. There are pretty orders beginning, I 
can tell you ; it is but heading and hanging. 

Pompey. If you head and hang all that offend that 
way but for ten year together, you '11 be glad to give 
out a commission for more heads. If this law hold 
in Vienna ten year, I '11 rent the fairest house in it 
after three-pence a day. If you live to see this 
come to pass, say Pompey told you so. 251 

Escalus. Thank you, good Pompey ; and, in re- 
quital of your prophecy, hark you : I advise you, let 
me not find you before me again upon any complaint 
whatsoever ; no, not for dwelling where you do. If 



Scene I] Measure for Measure 53 

I do, Pompey, I shall beat you to your tent, and 
prove a shrewd Caesar to you ; in plain dealing, 
Pompey, I shall have you whipt. So, for this time, 
Pompey, fare you well. 259 

Pompey. I thank your worship for your good 
counsel ; [Aside] but I shall follow it as the flesh and 
fortune shall better determine. 
Whip me ? No, no ; let carman whip his jade ; 
The valiant heart is not whipt out of his trade. [JSxtf. 

Escalus. Come hither to me. Master Elbow^ ; come 
hither. Master Constable. How long have you been 
in this place of constable ? 

Elbow. Seven year and a half, sir. 

Escalus. I thought, by your readiness in the office, 
you had continued in it some time. You say, seven 
years together ? 271 

Elbow. And a half, sir. 

Escalus. Alas, it hath been great pains to you. 
They do you wrong to put you so oft upon 't. Are 
there not men in your ward sufficient to serve it ? 

Elbow. Faith, sir, few of any wit in such matters. 
As they are chosen, they are glad to choose me for 
them ; I do it for some piece of money, and go 
through with all. 

Escalus. Look you bring me in the names of 
some six or seven, the most sufficient of your parish. 

Elbow. To your worship's house, sir ? 282 

Escalus. To my house. Fare you well. — \Exit 
Elbow.] What 's o'clock, think you ? 



54 Measure for Measure [Act il 

Justice. Eleven, sir. 

Escalus. I pray you home to dinner with me. 

Justice. I humbly thank you. 

Escalus. It grieves me for the death of Claudio ; 
But there 's no remedy. 

Justice. Lord Angelo is severe. 

Escalus. It is but needful. 

Mercy is not itself that oft looks so ; 291 

Pardon is still the nurse of second woe. 
But yet, — poor Claudio ! There is no remedy. 
Come, sir. \Exeunt. 

Scene II. Another Room in the Same 
Enter Provost arid a Servant 

Servant. He 's hearing of a cause ; he will come 
straight. 
I 'II tell him of you. 

Provost. Pray you, do. — \Exit Servant?^ I '11 know 

His pleasure ; may be he will relent. Alas, 

He hath but as offended in a dream ! 

All sects, all ages smack of this vice ; and he 

To die for 't ! — 

Enter Angelo 

Angelo. Now, what 's the matter, provost ? 

Provost. Is it your will Claudio shall die to-morrow ? 
Angelo. Did not I tell thee yea? hadst thou not 
order ? 
Why dost thou ask again ? 

Provost. Lest I might be too rash. 



Scene II] Measure for Measure 55 

Under your good correction, I have seen, 10 

When, after execution, judgment hath 
Repented o'er his doom. 

Angelo. Go to ; let that be mine. 

Do you your office, or give up your place. 
And you shall well be spar'd. 

Provost. I crave your honour's pardon. 

What shall be done, sir, with the groaning Juliet ? 
She 's very near her hour. 

Angelo. Dispose of her 

To some more fitter place, and that with speed. 

Re-enter Servant 

Servant Here is the sister of the man condemn'd 
Desires access to you. 

Angelo. Hath he a sister ? 

Provost. Ay, my good lord ; a very virtuous maid, 20 
And to be shortly of a sisterhood, 
If not already. 

Angelo. Well, let her be admitted. — \Exit Servant. 
See you the fornicatress be remov'd. 
Let her have needful but not lavish means ; 
There shall be order for 't. 

Enter Isabella and Lucio 

Provost. Save your honour ! 

Angelo. Stay a little while. — \To Isabella'] You're 

welcome ; what 's your will ? 
Isabella. I am a woful suitor to your honour, 
Please but your honour hear me. 



5 6 Measure for Measure [Act ii 

Angela. Well, what 's your suit ? 

Isabella. There is a vice that most do I abhor, 
And most desire should meet the blow of justice ; 30 
For which I would not plead but that I must ; 
For which I must not plead but that I am 
At war 'twixt will and will not. 

Angelo. Well, the matter ? 

Isabella. I have a brother is condemn'd to die ; 
I do beseech you, let it be his fault. 
And not my brother. 

Provost. [Aside] Heaven give thee moving graces ! 

Angelo. Condemn the fault, and not the actor of it? 
Why, every fault 's condemn'd ere it be done. 
Mine were the very cipher of a function, 
To fine the faults whose fine stands in record, 40 

And let go by the actor. 

Isabella. O just but severe law ; 

I had a brother, then. Heaven keep your honour ! 

Lucio. [Aside to Isabella] Give 't not o'er so: to him 
again, entreat him ; 
Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown. 
You are too cold ; if you should need a pin. 
You could not with more tame a tongue desire it. 
To him, I say ! 

Isabella. Must he needs die ? 

Angelo. Maiden, no remedy. 

Isabella. Yes ; I do think that you might pardon 
him. 
And neither heaven nor man grieve at the mercy. 50 



Scene II] Measure for Measure 57 

Angela. I will not do 't. 

Isabella. But can you, if you would ? 

Angela. Look, what I will not, that I cannot do. 

Isabella. But might you do 't, and do the world no 
wrong, 
If so your heart were touch 'd with that remorse 
As mifie is to him ? 

Angela. He 's sentenc'd ; 't is too late. 

Lucia. [Aside ta Isabella^ You are too cold. 

Isabella. Too late ? why, no ; I that do speak a word 
May call it back again. Well believe this, 
No ceremony that to great ones longs, 
Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword, 60 

The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe, 
Become them with one half so good a grace 
As mercy does. 

If he had been as you and you as he. 
You would have slipt like him ; but he like you 
Would not have been so stern. 

Angela. Pray you, be gone. 

Isabella. I would to heaven I had your potency. 
And you were Isabel ! should it then be thus ? 
No ; I would tell what 't were to be a judge, 
And what a prisoner. 

Lucia. [Aside to Isabella^ Ay, touch him ; there 's the 
vein. 70 

Angela. Your brother is a forfeit of the law, 
And you but waste your words. 

Isabella. Alas, alas I 



58 Measure for Measure [Act 11 

Why, all the souls that were were forfeit once, 
And He that might the vantage best have took 
Found out the remedy. How would you be, 
If He which is the top of judgment should 
But judge you as you are ? O, think on that ! 
And mercy then will breathe within your lips, 
Like man new made. 

Angela. Be you content, fair maid ; 

It is the law, not I condemn your brother. 80 

Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son. 
It should be thus with him ; he must die to-morrow. 

Isabella. To-morrow ! O, that 's sudden ! Spare him, 
spare him ! 
He 's not prepar'd for death. Even- for our kitchens 
We kill the fowl of season ; shall we serve heaven 
With less respect than we do minister 
To our gross selves ? Good, good my lord, bethink you ; 
Who is it that hath died for this offence ? 
There 's many have committed it. 

Lucio. [Aside to Isabella?^ Ay, well said. 

Angelo. The law hath not been dead, though it hath 
slept. 90 

Those many had not dar'd to do that evil 
If the first that did the edict infringe 
Had answer'd for his deed ; now 't is awake, 
Takes note of what is done, and, like a prophet. 
Looks in a glass that shows what future evils. 
Either new or by remissness new-conceiv'd. 
And so in progress to be hatch 'd and born, 



Scene II] Measure for Measure 59 

Are now to have no successive degrees, 
But, ere they live, to end. 

Isabella. Yet show some pity. 

Angela. I show it most of all when I show justice ; 
For then I pity those I do not know, loi 

Which a dismiss 'd offence would after gall, 
And do him right that, answering one foul wrong, 
Lives not to act another. Be satisfied ; 
Your brother dies to-morrow ; be content. 

Isabella. So you must be the first that gives this 
sentence, 
And he that suffers. O, it is excellent 
To have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous 
To use it like a giant. 

Lucio. \Aside to Isabella'] That 's well said. 

Isabella. Could great men thunder no 

As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet. 
For every pelting, petty officer 
Would use his heaven for thunder. 
Nothing but thunder ! — Merciful Heaven, 
Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous T3olt 
Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak 
Than the soft myrtle ; but man, proud man, 
Drest in a little brief authority. 
Most ignorant of what he 's most assur'd. 
His glassy essence, like an angry ape, 120 

Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven 
As make the angels weep, who, with our spleens. 
Would all themselves laugh mortal. 



6o Measure for Measure [Act il 

Lucio. [Aside to Isabella] O, to him, to him, wench ! 
he will relent ; 
He 's coming, I perceive 't. 

Provost. [Aside] Pray heaven she win him ! 

Isabella. We cannot weigh our brother with ourself. 
Great men may jest with saints ; 't is wit in them. 
But in the less foul profanation. 

Lucio. Thou 'rt i' the right, girl ; more o' that. 

Isabella. That in the captain 's but a choleric word 
Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy. 131 

Lucio. [Aside to Isabella?^ Art avis'd o' that ? more 
on 't. 

Angelo. Why do you put these sayings upon me ? 

Isabella. Because authority, though it err like others, 
Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself 
That skins the vice o' the top. Go to your bosom ; 
Knock there, and ask your heart wHat it doth know 
That 's like my brother's fault. If it confess 
A natural guiltiness such as is his, 

Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue 140 

Against my brother's life. 

Angelo. [Aside] She speaks, and 't is 

Such sense that my sense breeds with it. — Fare you 
well. 

Isabella. Gentle my lord, turn back. 

Angelo. I will bethink me ; come again to-morrow. 

Isabella. Hark how I '11 bribe you ; good my lord, 
turn back. 

Angelo. How ! bribe me ? 



Scene II] Measure for Measure 6i 

Isabella. Ay, with such gifts that heaven shall share 
with you. 

Lucio. \Aside to Isabella]^ You had marr'd all else. 

Isabella. Not with fond shekels of the tested gold, 
Or stones whose rates are either rich or poor 150 

As fancy values them, but with true prayers 
That shall be up at heaven and enter there 
Ere sunrise, prayers from preserved souls, 
From fasting maids whose minds are dedicate 
To nothing temporal. 

Angela. Well ; come to me to-morrow. 

Lucio. [Aside to Isabella'] Go to ; t' is well ; away ! 

Isabella. Heaven keep your honour safe ! 

Angela. [Aside] Amen ; 

For I am that way going to temptation 
Where prayers cross. 

Isabella. At what hour to-morrow 

Shall I attend your lordship ? 

Angela. At any time fore noon. 160 

Isabella. Save your honour ! 

[Exeunt Isabella, Lucio, and Pravast. 

Angela. From thee, — even from thy virtue ! 

What 's this, what 's this ? Is this her fault or 

mine? 
The tempter or the tempted, who sins most ? Ha ! 
Not she ; nor doth she tempt ; but it is I 
That, lying by the violet in the sun. 
Do as the carrion does, not as the flower. 
Corrupt with virtuous season. Can it be 



62 Measure for Measure [Act il 

That modesty may more betray our sense 

Than woman's lightness ? Having waste ground enough, 

Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary 170 

And pitch our evils there ? O, fie, fie, fie ! 

What dost thou, or what art thou, Angelo ? 

Dost thou desire her foully for those things 

That make her good ? O, let her brother live ! 

Thieves for their robbery have authority 

When judges steal themselves. What ! do I love her, 

That I desire to hear her speak again 

And feast upon her eyes ? What is 't I dream on ? 

cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint. 

With saints dost bait thy hook ! Most dangerous 180 

Is that temptation that doth goad us on 

To sin in loving virtue. Never could the strumpet, 

With all her double vigour, art and nature, 

Once stir my temper, but this virtuous maid 

Subdues me quite. Ever till now, 

When men were fond, I smil'd and wonder'd how. 

[Exit 

Scene III. A Room in a Prison 

Enter, severally, Duke, disguised as a friar, and Provost 

Duke. Hail to you, provost ! — so I think you are. 
Provost. I am the provost. What 's your will, good 

friar ? 
Duke. Bound by my charity and my blest order, 

1 come to visit the afflicted spirits 



Scene III] Measure for Measure 6j 

Here in the prison. Do me the common right 

To let me see them and to make me know 

The nature of their crimes, that I may minister 

To them accordingly. 

Provost. I would do more than that, if more were 

needful. 

Enter Juliet 

Look, here comes one ; a gentlewoman of mine, lo 

Who, falling in the flames of her own youth. 

Hath blister'd her report. She is with child, 

And he that got it, sentenc'd — a young man 

More fit to do another such offence 

Than die for this. 

Duke. When must he die ? 

Provost. As I do think, to-morrow. — 

[To Juliet] I have provided for you ; stay awhile, 
And you shall be conducted. 

Duke. Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry ? 

Juliet. I do, and bear the shame most patiently. 20 

Duke. I '11 teach you how you shall arraign your 
conscience. 
And try your penitence, if it be sound 
Or hollowly put on. 

Juliet. I '11 gladly learn. 

Duke. Love you the man that wrong'd you ? 

Juliet. Yes, as I love the woman that wrong'd him. 

Duke. So then it seems your most offenceful act 
Was mutually committed ? 

Juliet. Mutually. 



64 Measure for Measure [Act 11 

Duke. Then was your sin of heavier kind than his. 

Juliet. I do confess it, and repent it, father. 

Duke. 'T is meet so, daughter ; but lest you do 
repent, 30 

As that the sin hath brought you to this shame, 
Which sorrow is always towards ourselves, not heaven, 
Showing we would not spare heaven as we love it, 
But as we stand in fear, — 

Juliet. I do repent me, as it is an evil. 
And take the shame with joy. 

Duke. There rest. 

Your partner, as I hear, must die to-morrow, 
And I am going with instruction to him. 
Grace go with you ! Benedicite ! \Exit. 

Juliet. Must die to-morrow ! O injurious law, 40 
That respites me a life whose very comfort 
Is still a dying horror ! 

Provost. 'T is pity of him. \Exeunt. 



Scene IV. A Room in Angelo's House 

Enter Angelo 

Angelo. When I would pray and think, I think and 
pray 
To several subjects. Heaven hath my empty words, 
Whilst my invention, hearing not my tongue, 
Anchors on Isabel ; Heaven in my mouth, 
As if I did but only chew his name, 



Scene IV] Measure for Measure 6^ 

And in my heart the strong and swelling evil 

Of my conception. The state whereon I studied 

Is like a good thing, being often read, 

Grown sear'd and tedious ; yea, my gravity, 

Wherein — let no man hear me — I take pride, lo 

Could I with boot change for an idle plume 

Which the air beats for vain. O place, O form, 

How often dost thou with thy case, thy habit. 

Wrench awe from fools and tie the wiser souls 

To thy false seeming ! Blood, thou art blood ; 

Let 's write good angel on the devil's horn, 

'T is not the devil's crest. — 

Enter a Servant 

How now ! who's there ? 

Servant. One Isabel, a sister, desires access to you. 

Angelo. Teach her the way. — \Exit Servant^ O 
heavens ! 
Why does my blood thus muster to my heart, 20 

Making both it unable for itself. 
And dispossessing all my other parts 
Of necessary fitness ? 

So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons, — 
Come all to help him, and so stop the air 
By which he should revive ; and even so 
The general, subject to a well-wish'd king. 
Quit their own part, and in obsequious fondness 
Crowd to his presence, where their untaught love 
Must needs appear offence. — 

MEASURE FOR MEASURE — C 



66 Measure for Measure [Act ii 

Enter Isabella 

How now, fair maid ? 30 

Isabella. I am come to know your pleasure. 

Angela. That you might know it, would much better 
please me 
Than to demand what 't is. Your brother cannot 
live. 

Isabella. Even so. — Heaven keep your honour ! 

Angelo. Yet may he live awhile, and, it may be. 
As long as you or I ; yet he must die. 

Isabella. Under your sentence ? 

Angelo. Yea. 

Isabella. When, I beseech you ? that in his reprieve, 
Longer or shorter, he may be so fitted 40 

That his soul sicken not. 

Angelo. Ha ! fie, these filthy vices ! It were as 
good 
To pardon him that hath from nature stolen 
A man already made, as to remit 
Their saucy sweetness that do coin heaven's image 
In stamps that are forbid ; 't is all as easy 
Falsely to take away a life true made 
As to put metal in restrained means 
To make a false one. 

Isabella. 'T is set down so in heaven, but not in 
earth. 50 

Angelo. Say you so ? then I shall pose you quickly. 
Which had you rather, that the most just law 



Scene IV] Measure for Measure 67 

Now took your brother's life, or, to redeem him, 
Give up your body to such sweet uncleanness 
As she that he hath stain 'd ? 

Isabella. Sir, believe this, 

I had rather give my body than my soul. 

An^elo. I talk not of your soul ; our compell'd sins 
Stand more for number than for accompt. 

Isabella. How say you ? 

Angela. Nay, I '11 not warrant that ; for I can speak 
Against the thing I say. Answer to this : 60 

I, now the voice of the recorded law. 
Pronounce a sentence on your brother's life ; 
Might there not be a charity in sin 
To save this brother's life ? 

Isabella. Please you to do 't, 

I '11 take it as a peril to my soul, 
It is no sin at all, but charity. 

Angela. Pleas 'd you to do 't at peril of your soul, 
Were equal poise of sin and charity. 

Isabella. That I do beg his life, if it be sin. 
Heaven let me bear it ! you granting of my suit, 70 

If that be sin, I '11 make it my morn prayer 
To have it added to the faults of mine. 
And nothing of your answer. 

Angela. Nay, but hear me. 

Your sense pursues not mine ; either you are ignorant, 
Or seem so craftily, and that 's not good. 

Isabella. Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good, 
But graciously to know I am no better. 



68 Measure for Measure [Act ii 

Angelo. Thus wisdom wishes to appear most bright, 
When it doth tax itself ; as these black masks 
Proclaim an enshield beauty ten times louder 80 

Than beauty could display'd. But mark me ; 
To be received plain, I '11 speak more gross. 
Your brother is to die. 

Isabella. So. 

Angelo. And his offence is so, as it appears 
Accountant to the law upon that pain. 

Isabella. True. 

Angelo. Admit no other way to save his life, — 
As I subscribe not that, nor any other, 
But in the loss of question, — that you, his sister, 90 
Finding yourself desir'd of such a person 
Whose credit with the judge, or own great place, 
Could fetch your brother from the manacles 
Of the all-holding law, and that there were 
No earthly mean to save him but that either 
You must lay down the treasures of your body 
To this suppos'd, or else to let him suffer, 
What would you do ? 

Isabella. As much for my poor brother as myself : 
That is, were I under the terms of death, 100 

The impression of keen whips I 'd wear as rubies. 
And strip myself to death, as to a bed 
That longing I 've been sick for, ere I 'd yield 
My body up to shame. 

Angelo. Then must your brother die. t 

Isabella. And 't were the cheaper way. ■ 



Scene IV] Measure for Measure 69 

Better it were a brother died at once, 
Than that a sister, by redeeming him, 
Should die for ever. 

Angela. Were not you then as cruel as the sentence 
That you have slander 'd so ? no 

Isabella. Ignomy in ransom and free pardon 
Are of two houses ; lawful mercy 
Is nothing kin to foul redemption. 

Angela. You seem'd of late to make the law a tyrant, 
And rather prov'd the sliding of your brother 
A merriment than a vice. 

Isabella. O, pardon me, my lord; it oft falls out. 
To have what we would have, we speak not what we mean. 
I something do excuse the thing I hate, 
For his advantage that I dearly love. 120 

Angela. We are all frail. 

Isabella. Else let my brother die, 

If not a fedary but only he 
Owe and succeed thy weakness. 

Angela. Nay, women are frail too. 

Isabella. Ay, as the glasses where they view them- 
selves. 
Which are as easy broke as they make forms. 
Women ! Help Heaven ! men their creation mar 
In profiting by them. Nay, call us ten times frail ; 
For we are soft as our complexions are, 
And credulous to false prints. 

Angela. I think it well ; 130 

And from this testimony of your own sex, — 



70 Measure for Measure [Act ii 

Since I suppose we are made to be no stronger 
Than faults may shake our frames, — let me be bold ; 
I do arrest your words. Be that you are, 
That is, a woman ; if you be more, you 're none ; 
If you be one, as you are well express'd 
By all external warrants, show it now 
By putting on the destin'd livery. 

Isabella. I have no tongue but one ; gentle my lord, 
Let me entreat you speak the former language. 140 

Angela. Plainly conceive, I love you. 

Isabella. My brother did love Juliet, 
And you tell me that he shall die for it. 

Angela. He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love. 

Isabella. I know your virtue hath a license in 't 
Which seems a little fouler than it is. 
To pluck on others. 

Angela. Believe me, on mine honour, 

My words express my purpose. 

Isabella. Ha ! little honour to be much believ'd. 
And most pernicious purpose ! Seeming, seeming ! 150 
I will proclaim thee, Angelo ; look for 't ! 
Sign me a present pardon for my brother, 
Or with an outstretch 'd throat I '11 tell the world aloud 
What man thou art. 

Angelo. Who will believe thee, Isabel ? 

My unsoil'd name, the austereness of my life, 
My vouch against you, and my place i' the state, 
Will so your accusation overweigh 
That you shall stifle in your own report 



Scene IV] Measure for Measure 71 

And smell of calumny. I have begun, 
And now I give my sensual race the rein : 160 

Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite ; 
Lay by all nicety and prolixious blushes 
That banish what they sue for ; redeem thy brother 
By yielding up thy body to my will, 
Or else he must not only die the death. 
But thy unkindness shall his death draw out 
To lingering sufferance. Answer me to-morrow, 
Or, by the affection that now guides me most, 
I '11 prove a tyrant to him. As for you, 169 

Say what you can, my false o'erweighs your true. \Exit. 
Isabella. To whom should I complain ? Did I tell this. 
Who would believe me ? O perilous mouths. 
That bear in them one and the self-same tongue, 
Either of condemnation or approof ; 
Bidding the law make court'sy to their will. 
Hooking both right and wrong to the appetite. 
To follow as it draws ! I '11 to my brother. 
Though he hath fallen by prompture of the blood, 
Yet hath he in him such a mind of honour 
That, had he twenty heads to tender down 180 

On twenty bloody blocks, he 'd yield them up 
Before his sister should her body stoop 
To such abhorr'd pollution. 
Then, Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die j 
More than our brother is our chastity. 
I '11 tell him yet of Angelo's request, 
And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest. \Exit. 




Street before the Prison (iii. 2) 



ACT III 

Scene I. A Room in the Prison 
Enter Duke disguised as before, Claudio, and Provost 

Duke. So then you hope of pardon from Lord Angelo ? 

Claudio. The miserable have no other medicine 
But only hope. 
I 've hope to live, and am prepar'd to die. 

72 



i 



Scene I] Measure for Measure 73 

Duke. Be absolute for death ; either death or life 
Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life : 
If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing 
That none but fools would keep ; a breath thou art, 
Servile to all the skyey influences, 

That dost this habitation where thou keep'st 10 

Hourly afflict. Merely, thou art death's fool ; 
For him thou labour 'st by thy flight to shun. 
And yet runn'st toward him still. Thou art not noble ; 
For all the accommodations that thou bear'st 
Are nurs'd by baseness. Thou 'rt by no means valiant ; 
For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork 
Of a poor worm. Thy best of rest is sleep. 
And that thou oft provok'st, yet grossly fear'st 
Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not thyself ; 
For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains 20 

That issue out of dust. Happy thou art not ; 
For what thou hast not, still thou striv'st to get. 
And what thou hast, forget'st. Thou art not certain ; 
For thy complexion shifts to strange effects. 
After the moon. If thou art rich, thou 'rt poor ; 
For, like an ass whose back with ingots bows. 
Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey, 
And death unloads thee. Friend hast thou none ; 
For thine own bowels which do call thee sire, 
The mere effusion of thy proper loins, 30 

Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum, 
For ending thee no sooner. Thou hast nor youth nor 
age, 



74 Measure for Measure [Act iii 

But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep. 

Dreaming on both ; for all thy blessed youth 

Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms 

Of palsied eld ; and when thou art old and rich. 

Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty, 

To make thy riches pleasant. What 's yet in this 

That bears the name of life ? Yet in this life 

Lie hid moe thousand deaths ; yet death we fear 40 

That makes these odds all even. 

Claudio. I humbly thank you. 

To sue to live, I find I seek to die, 
And, seeking death, find life ; let it come on. 

Isabella. [ Wilkin] What, ho ! Peace here ; grace 
and good company ! 

Provost. Who 's there ? come in ; the wish deserves 
a welcome. 

Duke. Dear sir, ere long I '11 visit you again. 

Claudio. Most holy sir, I thank you. 

Enter Isabella 

Isabella. My business is a word or two with Claudio. 
Provost. And very welcome. — Look, signior, here 's 

your sister. 
Duke. Provost, a word with you. 50 

Provost. As many as you please. 
Duke. Bring me to hear them speak, where I may be 
concealed. [Exeunt Duke and Provost. 

Claudio. Now, sister, what 's the comfort ? 
Isabella. Why, 



Scene I] Measure for Measure 75 

As all comforts are ; most good, most good indeed. 
Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven, 
Intends you for his swift ambassador, 
Where you shall be an everlasting lieger. 
Therefore your best appointment make with speed ; 
To-morrow you set on. 

Claudio. Is there no remedy ? 60 

Isabella. None, but such remedy as, to save a head, 
To cleave a heart in twain, 

Claudio. But is there any ? 

Isabella. Yes, brother, you may live ; 
There is a devilish mercy in the judge, 
If you '11 implore it, that will free your life, 
But fetter you till death. 

Claudio. Perpetual durance ? 

Isabella. Ay, just ; perpetual durance, a restraint, 
Though all the world's vastidity you had, 
To a determin'd scope. 

Claudio. But in what nature ? 

Isabella. In such a one as, you consenting to 't, 70 
Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear 
And leave you naked. 

Claudio. Let me know the point. 

Isabella. O, I do fear thee, Claudio ; and I quake 
Lest thou a feverous life shouldst entertain. 
And six or seven winters more respect 
Than a perpetual honour. Dar'st thou die ? 
The sense of death is most in apprehension, 
And the poor beetle that we tread upon 



76 Measure for Measure [Act iii 

In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great 
As when a giant dies. 

Claudio. Why give you me this shame ? 80 

Think you I can a resolution fetch 
From flowery tenderness ? If I must die, 
I will encounter darkness as a bride 
And hug it in mine arms. 

Isabella. There spake my brother ; there my father's 
grave 
Did utter forth a voice. Yes, thou must die ; 
Thou art too noble to conserve a life 
In base appliances. This outward-sainted deputy. 
Whose settled visage and deliberate word 
Nips youth i' the head and follies doth emmew 90 

As falcon doth the fowl, is yet a devil ; 
His filth within being cast, he would appear 
A pond as deep as hell. 

Claudio. The priestly Angelo ! 

Isabella. O, 't is the cunning livery of hell, 
The damned'st body to invest and cover 
In priestly guards ! Dost thou think, Claudio ? 
If I would yield him my virginity, 
Thou mightst be freed. 

Claudio. O heavens ! it cannot be. 

Isabella. Yes, he would give 't thee, from this rank 
offence. 
So to offend him still. This night 's the time 100 

That I should do what I abhor to name, 
Or else thou diest to-morrow. 



Scene I] Measure for Measure 77 

Claudio. Thou shalt not do 't. 

Isabella. O, were it but my life, 
I 'd throw it down for your deliverance 
As frankly as a pin. 

Claudio. Thanks, dear Isabel. 

Isabella. Be ready, Claudio, for your death to-morrow. 

Claudio. Yes. Has he affections in him, 
That thus can make him bite the law by the nose. 
When he would force it ? Sure, it is no sin ; 
Or of the deadly seven it is the least. no 

Isabella. Which is the least ? 

Claudio. If it were damnable, he being so wise, 
Why would he for the momentary trick 
Be perdurably fin'd ? O Isabel ! 

Isabella. What says my brother ? 

Claudio. Death is a fearful thing. 

Isabella. And shamed life a hateful. 

Claudio. Ay, but to die, and go we know not where ; 
To lie in cold obstruction and to rot ; 
This sensible warm motion to become 
A kneaded clod ; and the delighted spirit 120 

To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside 
In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice ; 
To be imprison'd in the viewless winds. 
And blown with restless violence round about 
The pendent world ; or to be worse than worst 
Of those that lawless and incertain thought 
Imagine howling ! — 't is too horrible ! 
The weariest and most loathed worldly life 



7 8 Measure for Measure [Act ill 

That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment 

Can lay on nature is a paradise 130 

To what we fear of death. 

Isabella. Alas, alas ! 

Claudio. Sweet sister, let me live. 

What sin you do to save a brother's life, 
Nature dispenses with the deed so far 
That it becomes a virtue. 

Isabella. O you beast I 

faithless coward ! O dishonest wretch ! 
Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice ? 
Is 't not a kind of incest to take life 

From thine own sister's shame ? What should I think ? 
Heaven shield my mother play'd my father fair ! 140 
For such a warped slip of wilderness 
Ne'er issued from his blood. Take my defiance ! 
Die, perish ! Might but my bending down 
Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed. 

1 '11 pray a thousand prayers for thy death, 
No word to save thee. 

Claudio. Nay, hear me, Isabel. 

Isabella. O, fie, fie, fie ! 

Thy sin 's not accidental, but a trade. 
Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd ; 149 

'T is best that thou diest quickly. 

Claudio. O hear me, Isabella ! 

Re-enter Duke 

Duke. Vouchsafe a word, young sister, but one word. 
Isabella. What is your will ? 



Scene I] Measure for Measure 79 

Duke. Might you dispense with your leisure, I 
would by and by have some speech with you ; the 
satisfaction I would require is likewise your ow^n 
benefit. 156 

Isabella. I have no superfluous leisure ; my stay 
must be stolen out of other affairs, but I will attend 
you awhile. [ Walks apart. 

Duke. Son, I have overheard what hath passed 
between you and your sister. Angelo had never the 
purpose to corrupt her ; only he hath made an assay 
of her virtue to practise his judgment with the dispo- 
sition of natures. She, having the truth of honour 
in her, hath made him that gracious denial which 
he is most glad to receive. I am confessor to An- 
gelo, and I know this to be true ; therefore prepare 
yourself to death. Do not satisfy your resolution 
with hopes that are fallible. To-morrow you must 
die ; go to your knees and make ready. 170 

Claudio. Let me ask my sister pardon. I am so 
out of love with life that I will sue to be rid of it. 

Duke. Hold you there ; farewell. — \Exit Clau- 
dio?)^ Provost, a word with you ! 

Re-enter Provost 

Provost. What 's your will, father ? 

Duke. That now you are come, you will be gone. 
Leave me awhile with the maid ; my mind promises 
with my habit no loss shall touch her by my com- 
pany. 



8o Measure for Measure [Act III 

Provost. In good time. i8o 

\Exit Provost. Isabella comes forward. 

Duke. The hand that hath made you fair hath 
made you good ; the goodness that is cheap in beauty 
makes beauty brief in goodness, but grace, being the 
soul of your complexion, shall keep the body of it 
ever fair. The assault that Angelo hath made to 
you, fortune hath conveyed to my understanding ; 
and, but that frailty hath examples for his falling, 
I should wonder at Angelo. How will you do to 
content this substitute, and to save your brother ? 189 

Isabella. I am now going to resolve him. I had 
rather my brother die by the law than my son should 
be unlawfully born. But, O, how much is the good 
duke deceived in Angelo ! If ever he return and I 
can speak to him, I will open my lips in vain or dis- 
cover his government. 195 

Duke. That shall not be much amiss : yet, as the 
matter now stands, he will avoid your accusation ; 
he made trial of you only. Therefore fasten your 
ear on my advisings ; to the love I have in doing 
good a remedy presents itself. I do make myself 
believe that you may most uprighteously do a poor 
wronged lady a merited benefit, redeem your brother 
from the angry law, do no stain to your own gra- 
cious person, and much please the absent duke, if 
perad venture he shall ever return to have hearing 
of this business. 206 

Isabella. Let me hear you speak farther. I have 



Scene I] Measure for Measure 8i 

spirit to do anything that appears not foul in the 
truth of my spirit. 

Duke. Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. 
Have you not heard speak of Mariana, the sister of 
Frederick the great soldier who miscarried at sea ? 

Isabella. I have heard of the lady, and good 
words went with her name. 2x4 

Duke. She should this Angelo have married ; was 
affianced to her by oath and the nuptial appointed, 
between which time of the contract and limit of the 
solemnity her brother Frederick was wracked at sea, 
having in that perished vessel the dowry of his sister. 
But mark how heavily this befell to the poor gen- 
tlewoman : there she lost a noble and renowned 
brother, in his love toward her ever most kind and 
natural ; with him, the portion and sinew of her for- 
tune, her marriage-dowry ; with both, her combinate 
husband, this well-seeming Angelo. 225 

Isabella. Can this be so ? did Angelo so leave her ? 

Duke. Left her in her tears, and dried not one of 
them with his comfort ; swallowed his vows whole, 
pretending in her discoveries of dishonour ; in few, 
bestowed her on her own lamentation, which she 
yet wears for his sake, and he, a marble to her tears, 
is washed with them but relents not. 

Isabella. What a merit were it in death to take 
this poor maid from the world ! What corruption in 
this life, that it will let this man live ! But how out 
of this can she avail ? 236 

MEASURE FOR MEASURE — 6 



82 Measure for Measure [Act iii 

Duke. It is a rupture that you may easily heal ; 
and the cure of it not only saves your brother but 
keeps you from dishonour in doing it. 

Isabella. Show me how, good father. 240 

Duke. This forenamed maid hath yet in her the 
continuance of her first affection ; his unjust unkind- 
ness, that in all reason should have quenched her 
love, hath, like an impediment in the current, made 
it more violent and unruly. Go you to Angelo ; 
answer his requiring with a plausible obedience ; 
agree with his demands to the point ; only refer your- 
self to this advantage, first, that your stay with him 
may not be long, that the time may have all shadow 
and silence in it, and the place answer to conven- 
ience. This being granted in course — and now 
follows all — we shall advise this wronged maid to 
stead up your appointment, go in your place ; if the 
encounter acknowledge itself hereafter, it may com- 
pel him to her recompense : and here, by this, is 
your brother saved, your honour untainted, the poor 
Mariana advantaged, and the corrupt deputy foiled. 
The maid will I frame and make fit for his attempt. 
If you think well to carry this as you may, the double- 
ness of the benefit defends the deceit from reproof. 
What think you of it ? 261 

Isabella. The image of it gives me content already, 
and I trust it will grow to a most prosperous per- 
fection. 

Duke. It lies much in your holding up. Haste 



Scene II] Measure for Measure 83 

you speedily to Angelo ; if for this night he entreat 
you to his bed, give him promise of satisfaction. I 
will presently to Saint Luke's ; there, at the moated 
grange, resides this dejected Mariana. At that place 
call upon me, and dispatch with Angelo, that it may 
be quickly. 271 

Isabella. I thank you for this comfort. Fare you 
well, good father. [Exeunt severally. 



Scene II. The Street before the Prison 

Enter ^ on one side, Duke disguised as before ; on 
the other, Elbow, and Officers with Pompey 

Elbow. Nay, if there be no remedy for it but that 
you will needs buy and sell men and women like 
beasts, we shall have all the world drink brown and 
white bastard. 

Duke. O heavens ! what stuff is here ? 

Pompey. 'T was never merry world since, of two 
usuries, the merriest was put down, and the worser 
allowed by order of law a furred gown to keep him 
warm ; and furred with fox and lamb skins too, 
to signify that craft, being richer than innocency, 
stands for the facing. 

Elbow. Come your way, sir. — Bless you, good 
father friar, 

Duke. And you, good brother father. What 
offence hath this man made you, sir ? 



84 Measure for Measure [Act III 

Elboiv. Marry, sir, he hath offended the law ; and, 
sir, we take him to be a thief too, sir, for we have 
found upon him, sir, a strange picklock, which we 
have sent to the deputy. 

Duke. Fie, sirrah ! a bawd, a wicked bawd ! 20 

The evil that thou causest to be done, 
That is thy means to live. Do thou but think 
What 't is to cram a maw or clothe a back 
From such a filthy vice ; say to thyself. 
From their abominable and beastly touches 
I drink, I eat, array myself, and live. 
Canst thou believe thy living is a life, 
So stinkingly depending ? Go mend, go mend. 

Pompey. Indeed, it does stink in some sort, sir ; 
but yet, sir, I would prove — 30 

Duke. Nay, if the devil have given thee proofs for 
sin, 
Thou wilt prove his. — Take him to prison, officer. 
Correction and instruction must both work 
Ere this rude beast will profit. 

Elbow. He must before the deputy, sir; he has 
given him warning. The deputy cannot abide a 
whoremaster ; if he be a whoremonger, and comes 
before him, he were as good go a mile on his errand. 

Duke. That we were all, as some would seem to be, 
Free from our faults, as from faults seeming free ! 40 

Elbow. His neck will come to your waist, a cord, sir. 

Pompey. I spy comfort ; I cry bail. Here 's a 
gentleman and a friend of mine. 



Scene II] Measure for Measure 85 

Enter Lucio 

Lucio. How now, noble Pompey ! What, at the 
wheels of Caesar ? art thou led in triumph ? What, 
is there none of Pygmalion's images, newly made 
woman, to be had now, for putting the hand in the 
pocket and extracting it clutched ? What reply, ha ? 
What sayest thou to this tune, matter, and method ? 
Is 't not drowned i' the last rain, ha ? What sayest 
thou, trot ? Is the world as it was, man ? Which is 
the way ? Is it sad, and few words ? or how ? The 
trick of it ? 53 

Duke. Still thus, and thus ; still worse ! 

Lucio. How doth my dear morsel, thy mistress ? 
Procures she still, ha ? 

Pompey. Troth, sir, she hath eaten up all her beef, 
and she is herself in the tub. 

Lucio. Why, 't is good, it is the right of it, it must 
be so ; an unshunned consequence, it must be so. 
Art going to prison, Pompey ? 61 

Pompey. Yes, faith, sir. 

Lucio. Why, 't is not amiss, Pompey. Farewell ; 
go, say I sent thee thither. For debt, Pompey ? or 
how? 

Elbow. For being a bawd, for being a bawd. 

Lucio. Well, then, imprison him. If imprison- 
ment be the due of a bawd, why, 't is his right ; 
bawd he is doubtless, and of antiquity too — bawd- 
born. Farewell, good Pompey. Commend me to 



86 Measure for Measure [Act ill 

the prison, Pompey. You will turn good husband 
now, Pompey ; you will keep the house. 72 

Pompey. I hope, sir, your good worship will be 
my bail. 

Lucio. No, indeed, will I not, Pompey ; it is not 
the wear. I will pray, Pompey, to increase your 
bondage ; if you take it not patiently, why, your 
mettle is the more. Adieu, trusty Pompey. — Bless 
you, friar. 

Duke. And you. 80 

Lucio. Does Bridget paint still, Pompey, ha ? 

Elbow. Come your ways, sir ; come. 

Pompey. You will not bail me, then, sir ? 

Lucio. Then, Pompey, nor now. — What news 
abroad, friar ? What news ? 

Elbow. Come your ways, sir ; come. 

Lucio. Go to kennel, Pompey, go. — \_Exeunf El- 
bow, Po7?ipey and Officers.'] What news, friar, of the 
duke ? 89 

Duke. I know none. Can you tell me of any ? 

Lucio. Some say he is with the Emperor of 
Russia, other some he is in Rome ; but where is 
he, think you ? 

Duke. I know not where; but wheresoever, I 
wish him well. 

Lucio. It was a mad fantastical trick of him to 
steal from the state, and usurp the beggary he was 
never born to. Lord Angelo dukes it well in his 
absence ; he puts transgression to 't. 



Scene II] Measure for Measure 87 

Duke. He does well in 't. 100 

Lucio. A little more lenity to lechery would do 
no harm in him ; something too crabbed that way, 
friar. 

Duke. It is too general a vice, and severity must 
cure it. 

Lucio. Yes, in good sooth, the vice is of a great 
kindred, it is well allied ; but it is impossible to extirp 
it quite, friar, till eating and drinking be put down. 
They say this Angelo was not made by man and 
woman after this downright way of creation ; is it 
true, think you ? m 

Duke. How should he be made, then ? 

Lucio. Some report a sea-maid spawned him ; 
some, that he was begot between two stock-fishes. 

Duke. You are pleasant, sir, and speak apace. 

Lucio. Why, what a ruthless thing is this in him, 
for the rebellion of a codpiece to take away the life 
of a man ! Would the duke that is absent have done 
this ? Ere he would have hanged a man for the get- 
ting of a hundred bastards, he would have paid for 
the nursing a thousand. He had some feeling of the 
sport ; he knew the service, and that instructed 
him to mercy. 123 

Duke. I never heard the absent duke much de- 
tected for women ; he was not inclined that way. 

Lucio. O, sir, you are deceived. 

Duke. 'T is not possible. 

Lucio. Who, not the duke ? yes, your beggar of 



88 Measure for Measure [Act iii 

fifty, and his use was to put a ducat in her clack- 
dish ; the duke had crotchets in him. He would be 
drunk too ; that let me inform you. 131 

Duke. You do him wrong, surely. 

Lucio, Sir, I was an inward of his. A shy fellow 
was the duke ; and I believe I know the cause of his 
withdrawing. 

Duke. What, I prithee, might be the cause ? 

Lucio. No, pardon, 't is a secret must be locked 
within the teeth and the lips ; but this I can let you 
understand, the greater file of the subject held the 
duke to be wise. 140 

Duke. Wise ! why, no question but he was. 

Lucio. A very superficial, ignorant, unweighing 
fellow. 

Duke. Either this is envy in you, folly, or mistak- 
ing ; the very stream of his life and the business he 
hath helmed must upon a warranted need give him a 
better proclamation. Let him be but testimonied in 
his own bringings-forth, and he shall appear to the 
envious a scholar, a statesman, and a soldier. There- 
fore you speak unskilfully ; or if your knowledge be 
more, it is much darkened in your malice. 151 

Lucio. Sir, I know him, and I love him. 

Duke. Love talks with better knowledge, and 
knowledge with dearer love. 

Lucio. Come, sir, I know what I know. 

Duke. I can hardly believe that, since you know 
not what you speak. But, if ever the duke return, as 



Scene iij Measure for Measure 89 

our prayers are he may, let me desire you to make 
your answer before him. If it be honest you have 
spoke, you have courage to maintain it. I am bound 
to call upon you ; and, I pray you, your name ? 161 

Lucio. Sir, my name is Lucio, well known to the 
duke. 

Duke. He shall know you better, sir, if I may live 
to report you. 

Lucio. I fear you not. 

Duke. O, you hope the duke will return no more, • 
or you imagine me too unhurtful an opposite. But 
indeed I can do you httle harm ; you '11 forswear 
this again. 170 

Lucio. I '11 be hanged first ; thou art deceived in 
me, friar. But no more of this. Canst thou tell if 
Claudio die to-morrow or no ? 

Duke. Why should he die, sir ? 

Lucio. Why ? For filling a bottle with a tun-dish. 
I would the duke we talk of were returned again. 
This ungenitured agent will unpeople the province 
with continency ; sparrows must not build in his 
house-eaves, because they are lecherous. The duke 
yet would have dark deeds darkly answered ; he 
would never bring them to light. Would he were 
returned ! Marry, this Claudio is condemned for 
un trussing. Farewell, good friar ; I prithee, pray for 
me. The duke, I say to thee again, would eat mutton 
on Fridays. He 's not past it yet, and I say to thee, 
he would mouth with a beggar, though she smelt 



90 Measure for Measure [Act m 

brown bread and garlic ; say that I said so. Fare- 
well. \_Exit. 

Duke. No might nor greatness in mortality 
Can censure scape ; back-wounding calumny 190 

The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong 
Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue ? — 
But who comes here ? 

Enter Escalus, Provost, and Officers with Mistress 

Overdone 

Escalus. Go ; away with her to prison ! 

Mrs. Overdone. Good my lord, be good to me ; 
your honour is accounted a merciful man, good my 
lord. 

Escalus. Double and treble admonition, and still 
forfeit in the same kind ! This would make mercy 
swear and play the tyrant. 200 

Provost. A bawd of eleven years' continuance, 
may it please your honour. 

Mrs. Overdone. My lord, this is one Lucio's infor- 
mation against me. Mistress Kate Keepdown was 
with child by him in the duke's time ; he promised 
her marriage ; his child is a year and a quarter old, 
come Philip and Jacob. I have kept it myself ; and 
see how he goes about to abuse me ! 208 

Escalus. That fellow is a fellow of much license ; 
let him be called before us. — Away with her to 
prison ! — Go to ; no more words. — [^Exeunt Office ?'s 
with Mistress Overdone.'] Provost, my brother Angelo 



Scene II] Measure for Measure 91 

will not be altered ; Claudio must die to-morrow. Let 
him be furnished with divines and have all chari- 
table preparation. If my brother wrought by my 
pity, it should not be so with him. 

Provost. So please you, this friar hath been with 
him, and advised him for the entertainment of death. 

Escalus. Good even, good father. 

Duke. Bliss and goodness on you ! 220 

Escalus. Of whence are you ? 

Duke. Not of this country, though my chance is now 
To use it for my time ; I am a brother 
Of gracious order, late come from the See 
In special business from his holiness. 

Escalus. What news abroad i' the world ? 226 

Duke. None, but that there is so great a fever on 
goodness that the dissolution of it must cure it. 
Novelty is only in request ; and it is as dangerous to 
be aged in any kind of course as it is virtuous to be 
constant in any undertaking. There is scarce truth 
enough alive to make societies secure, but security 
enough to make fellowships accurst. Much upon this 
riddle runs the wisdom of the world. This news is 
old enough, yet it is every day's news. I pray you, 
sir, of what disposition was the duke ? 

Escalus. One that, above all other strifes, con- 
tended especially to know himself. 

Duke. What pleasure was he given to ? 239 

Escalus. Rather rejoicing to see another merry 
than merry at any thing which professed to make 



92 Measure for Measure [Act III 

him rejoice ; a gentleman of all temperance. But 
leave we him to his events, with a prayer that they 
may prove prosperous, and let me desire to know how 
you find Claudio prepared. I am made to under- 
stand that you have lent him visitation. 246 

Duke. He professes to have received no sinister 
measure from his judge, but most willingly humbles 
himself to the determination of justice ; yet had he 
framed to himself, by the instruction of his frailty, 
many deceiving promises of life which I by my good 
leisure have discredited to him, and now is he re- 
solved to die. 253 

Escalus. You have paid the heavens your function, 
and the prisoner the very debt of your calling. I have 
laboured for the poor gentleman to the extremest 
shore of my modesty ; but my brother justice have I 
found so severe that he hath forced me to tell him 
he is indeed justice. 

Duke. If his own life answer the straitness of his 
proceeding, it shall become him well ; wherein if he 
chance to fail, he hath sentenced himself. 262 

Escalus. I am going to visit the prisoner. Fare 
you well. 

Duke. Peace be with you ! — [Exeunt Escalus and 
Proiwst. 
He who the sword of heaven will bear 
Should be as holy as severe ; 
Pattern in himself to know, 
Grace to stand, and virtue go ; 



Scene II] Measure for Measure g^ 

More nor less to others paying 270 

Than by self-offences weighing. 

Shame to him whose cruel striking 

Kills for faults of his own liking ! 

Twice treble shame on Angelo, 

To weed my vice and let his grow ! 

O, what may man within him hide, 

Though angel on the outward side ! 

How may likeness wade in crimes, 

Making practice on the times, 

To draw with idle spiders' strings 280 

Most ponderous and substantial things I 

Craft against vice I must apply. 

With Angelo to-night shall lie 

His own betrothed but despis'd ; 

So disguise shall, by the disguis'd. 

Pay with falsehood false exacting. 

And perform an old contracting. [£xtf. 



nli.Wi/;;: 




In the Prison 



ACT IV 

Scene I. The Moated Grange at St. Luke's 

Enter Mariana and a Boy 

Boy sings. 
Take^ O, take those lips away 
That so sweetly were forsworn^ 
94 



Scene I] Measure for Measure 95 

And those eyes, the break of day, 

Lights that do mislead the morn ; 
But my kisses bring again, bring again, — 
Seals of love, but seaVd in vain, seaVd in vain. 

Mariana. Break off thy song and haste thee quick 
away ; 
Here comes a man of comfort, whose advice 
Hath often still'd my brawUng discontent. — [Exit Boy. 

Enter Duke disguised as before 

I cry you mercy, sir, and well could wish 10 

You had not found me here so musical. 

Let me excuse me, and believe me so. 

My mirth it much displeas'd, but pleas 'd my woe. 

Duke. 'T is good ; though music oft hath such a 
charm 
To make bad good, and good provoke to harm. 
I pray you, tell me, hath anybody inquired for me 
here to-day ? much upon this time have I promised 
here to meet. 

Mariana. You have not been inquired after ; I 
have sat here all day. 20 

Enter Isabella 

Duke. I do constantly believe you. The time is 
come even now. I shall crave your forbearance a 
little ; may be I will call upon you anon, for some 
advantage to yourself. 



96 Measure for Measure [Act iv 

Mariana. I am always bound to you. \Exit. 

Duke. Very well met, and well come. 
What is the news from this good deputy ? 

Isabella. He hath a garden circummur'd with brick, 
Whose western side is with a vineyard back'd ; 
And to that vineyard is a planched gate 30 

That makes his opening with this bigger key. 
This other doth command a little door 
Which from the vineyard to the garden leads ; 
There have I made my promise 
Upon the heavy middle of the night 
To call upon him. 

Duke. But shall you on your knowledge find this 
way? 

Isabella. I have ta'en a due and wary note upon 't. 
With whispering and most guilty diligence, 
In action all of precept, he did show me 4o| 

The way twice o'er. 

Duke. Are there no other tokens 

Between you greed concerning her observance ? 

Isabella. No, none, but only a repair i' the dark, 
And that I have possess 'd him my most stay 
Can be but brief ; for I have made him know 
I have a servant comes with me along 
That stays upon me, whose persuasion is 
I come about my brother. 

Duke. 'T is well borne up. 

I have not yet made known to Mariana 
A word of this. — What, ho ! within ! come forth ! 50 



Scene I] Measure for Measure 97 



Re-enter Mariana 

I pray you, be acquainted with this maid ; 
She comes to do you good. 

Isabella. I do desire the hke. 

Duke. Do you persuade yourself that I respect you ? 

Mariana. Good friar, I know you do, and have 
found it. 

Duke. Take, then, this your companion by the 
hand, 
Who hath a story ready for your ear. 
I shall attend your leisure, but make haste. 
The vaporous night approaches. 

Mariana. Will 't please you walk aside ? 

\Exeunt Mariana and Isabella. 

Duke. O place and greatness ! millions of false eyes 
Are stuck upon thee ; volumes of report 61 

Run with these false and most contrarious quests 
Upon thy doings ; thousand escapes of wit 
Make thee the father of their idle dreams 
And rack thee in their fancies. — 

Re-enter Mariana and Isabella 

Welcome, how agreed ? 

Isabella. She '11 take the enterprise upon her, father, 
If you advise it. 

Duke. It is not my consent, 

But my entreaty too. 

Isabella. Little have you to say 

MEASURE FOR MEASURE — 7 



98 Measure for Measure [Act IV 

When you depart from him, but, soft and low, 

' Remember now my brother.' 

Mariana. Fear me not. 70 

Duke. Nor, gentle daughter, fear you not at all. 

He is your husband on a pre-contract ; 

To bring you thus together 't is no sin, 

Sith that the justice of your title to him 

Doth flourish the deceit. Come, let us go ; 

Our corn 's to reap, for yet our tilth 's to sow. [Exeunt. 

Scene II. A Room in the Prison 
Enter Provost and Pompey 

Provost, Come hither, sirrah. Can you cut off a 
man's head? 

Pompey. If the man be a bachelor, sir, I can ; but 
if he be a married man, he 's his wife's head, and I 
can never cut off a woman's head. 

Provost. Come, sir, leave me your snatches, and 
yield me a direct answer. To-morrow morning are 
to die Claudio and Barnardine. Here is in our prison 
a common executioner, who in his ofHce lacks a 
helper. If you will take it on you to assist him, it 
shall redeem you from your gyves ; if not, you shall 
have your full time of imprisonment and your de- 
liverance with an unpitied whipping, for you have 
been a notorious bawd. 14 

Pompey. Sir, I have been an unlawful bawd time 
out of mind, but yet I will be content to be a lawful 



Scene II] Measure for Measure 99 

hangman. I would be glad to receive some instruc- 
tion from my fellow partner. 

Provost. What ho ! Abhorson ! Where 's Abhor- 

son, there ? 20 

Elite}' Abhorson 

Abhorson. Do you call, sir ? 

Provost. Sirrah, here 's a fellow will help you to- 
morrow in your execution. If you think it meet, com- 
pound with him by the year, and let him abide here 
with you ; if not, use him for the present and dismiss 
him. He cannot plead his estimation with you ; he 
hath been a bawd. 

Abhorson. A bawd, sir ? fie upon him ; he will dis- 
credit our mystery. 29 

Provost. Go to, sir, you weigh equally ; a feather 
will turn the scale. \_Exit. 

Pompey. Pray, sir, by your good favour, — for 
surely, sir, a good favour you have but that you 
have a hanging look, — do you call, sir, your occu- 
pation a mystery? 

Abhorson. Ay, sir; a mystery. 

Pompey. Painting, sir, I have heard say, is a mys- 
tery, and your whores, sir, being members of my 
occupation, using painting, do prove my occupation 
a mystery ; but what mystery there should be in 
hanging, if I should be hanged, I cannot imagine. 

Abhorson. Sir, it is a mystery. 42 

Pompey. Proof ? 

Abhorson. Every true man's apparel fits your thief. 



loo Measure for Measure [Act iv 

Pompey. If it be too little for your thief, your true 
man thinks it big enough ; if it be too big for your 
thief, your thief thinks it little enough : so every true 
man's apparel fits your thief. 

Re-enter Provost 

Provost. Are you agreed ? 49 

Pompey. Sir, I will serve him, for I do find your 
hangman is a more penitent trade than your bawd ; 
he doth oftener ask forgiveness. 

Provost. You, sirrah, provide your block and your 
axe to-morrow four o'clock. 

Abhorson. Come on, bawd, I will instruct thee in 
my trade ; follow. 

Pompey. I do desire to learn, sir, and I hope, if 
you have occasion to use me for your own turn, you 
shall find me yare ; for truly, sir, for your kindness 
I owe you a good turn. 60 

Provost. Call hither Barnardine and Claudio. — 

\_Exeunt Pompey and Abhorson. 
The one has my pity ; not a jot the other. 
Being a murtherer, though he were my brother. — 

Enter Claudio 

Look, here 's the warrant, Claudio, for thy death ; 
'T is now dead midnight, and by eight to-morrow 
Thou must be made immortal. Where 's Barnardine ? 

Claudio. As fast lock'd up in sleep as guiltless labour 
When it lies starkly in the traveller's bones ; 
He will not wake. 



Scene II] Measure for Measure loi 

Provost. Who can do good on him ? 69 

Well, go, prepare yourself. [Knocking within.'] But, 

hark, what noise ? 
Heaven give your spirits comfort! — [Exit Claudia?^ 

By and by. — 
I hope it is some pardon or reprieve 
For the most gentle Claudio. 

Enter Duke disguised as before 

Welcome, father. 

Duke. The best and wholesom'st spirits of the 
night 
Envelop you, good provost! Who call'd here of late ? 

Provost, None, since the curfew rung. 

Duke. Not Isabel ? 

Provost. No. 

Duke. They will, then, ere 't be long. 

Provost. W^hat comfort is for Claudio ? 

Duke. There 's some in hope. 

Provost. It is a bitter deputy. 

Duke. Not so, not so ; his life is parallel'd 80 

Even with the stroke and line of his great justice. 
He doth with holy abstinence subdue 
That in himself which he spurs on his power 
To qualify in others. Were he meal'd with that 
Which he corrects, then were he tyrannous ; 
But this being so, he 's just. — [Knocking within.] Now 
are they come. — [Exit Provost. 

This is a gentle provost ; seldom when 



101 Measure for Measure [Act iv 

The steeled gaoler is the friend of men. — [Knocking 

within.~\ 
How now ! what noise ? That spirit 's possess 'd with 

haste 89 

That wounds the unsisting postern with these strokes. 

Re-enter Provost 

Provost. There he must stay until the officer 
Arise to let him in ; he is call'd up. 

Duke. Have you no countermand for Claudio yet, 
But he must die to-morrow ? 

Provost. None, sir, none. 

Duke. As near the dawning, provost, as it is, 
You shall hear more ere morning. 

Provost. Happily 

You something know, yet, I believe there comes 
No countermand ; no such example have we. 
Besides upon the very siege of justice 
Lord Angelo hath to the public ear 100 

Profess'd the contrary. 

Enter a Messenger 

This is his lordship's man. 

Duke. And here comes Claudio's pardon. 

Messenger. \_Giving a papej^'] My lord hath sent 
you this note ; and by me this further charge, that 
you swerve not from the smallest article of it, neither 
in time, matter, or other circumstance. Good mor- 
row ; for, as I take it, it is almost day. 

Provost. I shall obey him. [_Exit Messenger. 



Scene II] Measure for Measure 103 

Duke. \Aside\ This is his pardon, purchas'd by- 
such sin 
For which the pardoner himself is in. no 

Hence hath offence his quick celerity, 
When it is borne in high authority. 
When vice makes mercy, mercy 's so extended 
That for the fault's love is the offender friended. — 
Now, sir, what news ? 

Provost. I told you. Lord Angelo, belike think- 
ing me remiss in mine office, awakens me with this 
unwonted putting-on ; methinks strangely, for he 
hath not used it before. 

Duke. Pray you, let 's hear. 120 

Provost. [Reads] ' Whatsoever you may hear to the 
contrary^ let Claudio be executed by four of the clock, 
and in the afternoon Barnardine. For my better satis- 
faction, let me have Claudio'' s head sent me by five. 
Let this be duly perfoi-med, with a thought that more 
depends on it than we must yet deliver. Thus fail not 
to do your office, as you will answer it at your peril.'' 
What say you to this, sir ? 

Duke. What is that Barnardine who is to be exe- 
cuted in the afternoon ? 130 

Provost. A Bohemian born, but here nursed up 
and bred ; one that is a prisoner nine years old. 

Duke. How came it that the absent duke had 
not either delivered him to his liberty or executed 
him ? I have heard it was ever his manner to do so. 

Provost. His friends still wrought reprieves for 



I04 Measure for Measure [Act IV 

him ; and, indeed, his fact, till now in the govern- 
ment of Lord Angelo, came not to an undoubtful 
proof. 

Duke. It is now apparent? 140 

Provost. Most manifest, and not denied by himself. 

Duke, Hath he borne himself penitently in prison ? 
how seems he to be touched ? 

Provost. A man that apprehends death no more 
dreadfully but as a drunken sleep; careless, reck- 
less, and fearless of what 's past, present, or to come ; 
insensible of mortality, and desperately mortal. 

Duke. He wants advice. 148 

Provost. He will hear none. He hath evermore 
had the liberty of the prison ; give him leave to 
escape hence, he would not ; drunk many times a 
day, if not many days entirely drunk. We have very 
oft awaked him, as if to carry him to execution, and 
showed him a seeming warrant for it ; it hath not 
moved him at all. 

Duke. More of him anon. There is written in 
your brow, provost, honesty and constancy. If I read 
it not truly, my ancient skill beguiles me ; but, in the 
boldness of my cunning, I will lay myself in hazard. 
Claudio, whom here you have warrant to execute, is 
no greater forfeit to the law than Angelo who hath 
sentenced him. To make you understand this in a 
manifested effect, I crave but four days' respite, for 
the which you are to do me both a present and a 
dangerous courtesy. 165 



i 



Scene II] Measure for Measure 105 

Provost. Pray, sir, in what ? 

Duke. In the delaying death. 

Provost. Alack, how may I do it, having the hour 
limited, and an express command, under penalty, to 
deliver his head in the view of Angelo ? I may make 
my case as Claudio's, to cross this in the smallest. 171 

Duke. By the vow of mine order I warrant you, if 
my instructions may be your guide. Let this Bar- 
nardine be this morning executed, and his head 
borne to Angelo. 

Provost. Angelo hath seen them both, and will 
discover the favour. 177 

Duke. O, death 's a great disguiser, and you may 
add to it. Shave the head and tie the beard, and 
say it was the desire of the penitent to be so bared 
before his death ; you know the course is common. 
If anything fall to you upon this, more than thanks 
and good fortune, by the saint whom I profess, I 
will plead against it with my life. 

Provost. Pardon me, good father ; it is against my 
oath. 

Duke. Were you sworn to the duke, or to the 
deputy ? 

Provost. To him, and to his substitutes. 189 

Duke. You will think you have made no offence 
if the duke avouch the justice of your dealing ? 

Provost. But what likelihood is in that ? 

Duke. Not a resemblance, but a certainty. Yet 
since I see you fearful, that neither my coat, integrity, 



io6 Measure for Measure [Act iv 

nor persuasion can with ease attempt you, I will go 
further than I meant, to pluck all fears out of you. 
Look you, sir, here is the hand and seal of the 
duke ; you know the character, I doubt not, and the 
signet is not strange to you. 

Provost. I know them both. 200 

Duke. The contents of this is the return of the 
duke ; you shall anon over-read it at your pleasure, 
where you shall find within these two days he will be 
here. This is a thing that Angelo knows not, for he 
this very day receives letters of strange tenor : per- 
chance of the duke's death ; perchance entering into 
some monastery ; but, by chance, nothing of what is 
writ. Look, the unfolding star calls up the shepherd. 
Put not yourself into amazement how these things 
should be ; all difficulties are but easy when they are 
known. Call your executioner, and off with Barnar- 
dine's head ; I will give him a present shrift and 
advise him for a better place. Yet you are amazed ; 
but this shall absolutely resolve you. Come away ; 
it is almost clear dawn. [Exeunt. 

Scene III. Another Room in the Same 

Enter Pompey 

Pompey. I am as well acquainted here as I was in 
our house of profession ; one would think it were 
Mistress Overdone 's own house, for here be many of 
her old customers. First, here 's young Master Rash ; 



Scene III] Measure for Measure 107 

he 's in for a commodity of brown paper and old 
ginger, nine-score and seventeen pounds, of which he 
made five marks, ready money ; marry, then ginger 
was not much in request, for the old women were all 
dead. Then is there here one Master Caper, at the 
suit of Master Three-pile the mercer, for some four 
suits of peach-coloured satin, which now peaches 
him a beggar. Then have we here young Dizy, and 
young Master Deep-vow, and Master Copper-spur, 
and Master Starve-lackey the rapier and dagger 
man, and young Drop-heir that killed lusty Pudding, 
and Master Forthright the tilter, and brave Master 
Shooty the great traveller, and wild Half-can that 
stabbed Pots, and, I think, forty more, all great doers 
in our trade, and are now for the Lord's sake. 

Enter Abhorson 

Abhorson. Sirrah, bring Barnardine hither. 20 

Po7npey. Master Barnardine ! you must rise and be 
hanged, Master Barnardine ! 

Abhorson. What, ho, Barnardine ! 

Barnardine. [ Withh{\ A pox o' your throats ! Who 
makes that noise there ? What are you ? 

Pompey. Your friends, sir, — the hangman. You 
must be so good, sir, to rise and be put to death. 

Barnardine. [ JVitkinl Away, you rogue, away ! I 
I am sleepy. 

Abhorson. Tell him he must awake, and that 
quickly too. 31 



io8 Measure for Measure [Act IV 

Pompey. Pray, Master Barnardine, awake till you 
are executed, and sleep afterwards. 

Abhorson. Go in to him, and fetch him out. 

Pompey. He is coming, sir, he is coming ; I hear 
his straw rustle. 

Abhorson. Is the axe upon the block, sirrah ? 

Pompey. Very ready, sir. 

Enter Barnardine 

Barnardine. How now, Abhorson ? what 's the 
news with you? 40 

Abhorson. Truly, sir, I would desire you to clap 
into your prayers ; for, look you, the warrant 's come. 

Barnardifie. You rogue, I have been drinking all 
night ; I am not fitted for 't. 

Pompey. O, the better, sir ! for he that drinks all 
night, and is hanged betimes in the morning, may 
sleep the sounder all the next day. 

Abhorso7i. Look you, sir, here comes your ghostly 
father : do we jest now, think you ? 49 

Enter Duke disguised as befoi'e 

Duke. Sir, induced by my charity, and hearing 
how hastily you are to depart, I am come to advise 
you, comfort you, and pray with you. 

Barnardine. Friar, not I ; I have been drinking 
hard sll night, and I will have more time to prepare 
me, or they shall beat out my brains with billets. I 
will not consent to die this day, that 's certain. 



Scene III] Measure for Measure 109 

Duke. O, sir, you must ; and therefore I beseech 
you 
Look forward on the journey you shall go. 

Barnardine. I swear I will not die to-day for any 
man's persuasion. 60 

Duke. But hear you, — 

Barnardine. Not a word ; if you have any thing 
to say to me, come to my ward, for thence will not I 
to-day. \Exit. 

Duke. Unfit to live or die. O gravel heart ! — 
After him, fellows ; bring him to the block. 

\Exeunt Abhorson and Pompey. 

Re-enter Provost 

Provost. Now, sir, how do you find the prisoner ? 

Duke. A creature unprepar'd, unmeet for death ; 
And to transport him in the mind he is 
Were damnable. 

Provost. Here in the prison, father, 70 

There died this morning of a cruel fever 
One Ragozine, a most notorious pirate, 
A man of Claudio's years ; his beard and head 
Just of his colour. What if we do omit 
This reprobate till he were well inclin'd 
And satisfy the deputy with the visage 
Of Ragozine, more like to Claudio ? 

Duke. O, 't is an accident that heaven provides ! 
Dispatch it presently ; the hour draws on 
Prefix'd by Angelo. See this be done, 80 



no Measure for Measure [Act iv 

And sent according to command, whiles I 
Persuade this rude wretch willingly to die. 

Provost. This sihall be done, good father, presently. 
But Barnardine must die this afternoon ; 
And how shall we continue Claudio, 
To save me from the danger that might come 
If he were known alive ? 

Duke. Let this be done : 

Put them in secret holds, both Barnardine and Clau- 
dio. 
Ere twice the sun hath made his journal greeting 
To the under generation, you shall find 90 

Your safety manifested. 

Provost. I am your free dependant. 

Duke. Quick, dispatch, and send the head to An- 
gelo. — {Exit Provost. 

Now will I write letters to Angelo, — 
The provost, he shall bear them, — whose contents 
Shall witness to him I am near at home. 
And that by great injunctions I am bound 
To enter publicly. Him I '11 desire 
To meet me at the consecrated fount 
A league below the city ; and from thence, 100 

By cold gradation and well-balanc'd form, 
We shall proceed with Angelo. 

Re-enter Provost 

Provost. Here is the head ; I '11 carry it myself. 
Duke. Convenient is it. Make a swift return. 



Scene III] Measure for Measure 1 1 1 

For I would commune with you of such things 
That want no ear but yours. 

Provost. I '11 make all speed. \_Exit. 

Isabella. \Within\ Peace, ho, be here ! 

Duke. The tongue of Isabel. She 's come to know 
If yet her brother's pardon be come hither ; 
But I will keep her ignorant of her good, no 

To make her heavenly comforts of despair 
When it is least expected. 

Enter Isabella 

Isabella. Ho, by your leave ! 

Duke, Good morning to you, fair and gracious 
daughter. 

Isabella. The better, given me by so holy a man. 
Hath yet the deputy sent my brother's pardon ? 

Duke. He hath releas'd him, Isabel, from the 
world ; 
His head is off and sent to Angelo. 

Isabella. Nay, but it is not so. 

Duke. It is no other ; show your wisdom, daughter, 
In your close patience. 120 

Isabella. O, I will to him and pluck out his eyes ! 

Duke. You shall not be admitted to his sight. 

Isabella. Unhappy Claudio ! wretched Isabel ! 
Injurious world ! most damned Angelo ! 

Duke. This nor hurts him nor profits you a jot. 
Forbear it therefore ; give your cause to heaven. 
Mark what I say, which you shall find 



112 Measure for Measure [Act IV 

By every syllable a faithful verity : 

The duke comes home to-morrow ; nay, dry your eyes ; 

One of our covent, and his confessor, 130 

Gives me this instance. Already he hath carried 

Notice to Escalus and Angelo, 

Who do prepare to meet him at the gates, 

There to give up their power. If you can pace your 

wisdom 
In that good path that I would wish it, go ; 
And you shall have your bosom on this wretch, 
Grace of the duke, revenges to your heart, 
And general honour. 

Isabella. I am directed by you. 

Duke. This letter, then, to Friar Peter give ; 
'T is that he sent me of the duke's return. 140 

Say, by this token, I desire his company 
At Mariana's house to-night. Her cause and yours 
I '11 perfect him withal, and he shall bring you 
Before the duke, and to the head of Angelo 
Accuse him home and home. For my poor self, 
I am combined by a sacred vow 
And shall be absent. Wend you with this letter. 
Command these fretting waters from your eyes 
With a light heart ; trust not my holy order 
If I pervert your course. — Who 's here ? 150 

Enter Lucio 

Lucio. Good even, friar, where 's the provost ? 
Duke. Not within, sir. 



Scene III] Measure for Measure 113 

Lucio. O pretty Isabella, I am pale at mine heart 
to see thine eyes so red ; thou must be patient. I 
am fain to dine and sup with water and bran : I dare 
not for my head fill my belly ; one fruitful meal would 
set me to 't. But they say the duke will be here to- 
morrow. By my troth, Isabel, I loved thy brother ; 
if the old fantastical duke of dark corners had been 
at home, he had lived. \^Exit Isabella, 

Duke. Sir, the duke is marvellous little beholding 
to your reports; but the best is, he lives not in 
them. 163 

Lucio. Friar, thou knowest not the duke so w^ell as 
I do ; he 's a better woodman than thou takest him 
for. 

Duke. Well, you '11 answer this one day. Fare ye 
well. 

Lucio. Nay, tarry ; I '11 go along with thee. I can 
tell thee pretty tales of the duke. 170 

Duke. You have told me too many of him already, 
sir, if they be true ; if not true, none were enough. 

Lucio. I was once before him for getting a wench 
with child. 

Duke. Did you such a thing ? 

Lucio. Yes, marry, did I, but I was fain to for- 
swear it ; they would else have married me to the 
rotten medlar. 

Duke. Sir, your company is fairer than honest. 
Rest you well. 180 

Lucio. By my troth, I '11 go with thee to the lane's 

MEASURE FOR MEASURE — 8 



114 Measure for Measure [Act IV 

end. If bawdy talk offend you, we '11 have very 
little of it. Nay, friar, I am a kind of burr ; I shall 
stick. [^Exeunt. 

Scene IV. A room in Angelo''s House 
Enter Angelo and Escalus 

Escalus. Every letter he hath writ hath disvouched 
other. 

Angelo. In most uneven and distracted manner. 
His actions show much like to madness ; pray 
heaven his wisdom be not tainted ! And why meet 
him at the gates, and redeliver our authorities there ? 

Escalus. I guess not. 

Angelo. And why should we proclaim it in an 
hour before his entering, that if any crave redress of 
injustice they should exhibit their petitions in the 
street ? n 

Escalus. He shows his reason for that : to have a 
dispatch of complaints, and to deliver us from de- 
vices hereafter, which shall then have no power to 
stand against us. 

Angelo. Well, I beseech you, let it be proclaimed 
betimes i' the morn ; I '11 call you at your house. 
Give notice to such men of sort and suit as are to 
meet him. 

Escalus. I shall, sir. Fare you well. 20 

Angelo. Good night. — \Exit Escalus. 

This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant 
And dull to all proceedings. A deflower'd maid ! 



Scene V] Measure for Measure 115 

And by an eminent body that enforc'd 

The law against it ! But that her tender shame 

Will not proclaim against her maiden loss, 

How might she tongue me! Yet reason dares her no; 

For my authority bears so credent bulk 

That no particular scandal once can touch 29 

But it confounds the breather. He should have liv'd, 

Save that his riotous youth, with dangerous sense, 

Might in the times to come have ta'en revenge, 

By so receiving a dishonour'd life 

With ransom of such shame. Would yet he had liv'd 1 

Alack, when once our grace we have forgot. 

Nothing goes right ; we would, and we would not. [Exit. 

Scene V. Fields without the Town 
Enter Duke in his own habit, and Friar Peter 

Duke. These letters at fit time deliver me. 

[ Giving letters. 
The provost knows our purpose and our plot. 
The matter being afoot, keep your instruction. 
And hold you ever to our special drift. 
Though sometimes you do blench from this to that, 
As cause doth minister. Go call at Flavius' house, 
And tell him where I stay : give the like notice 
To Valentinus, Rowland, and to Crassus, 
And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate ; 9 

But send me Flavius first. 

jFriar Peter, It shall be speeded well. \Exit. 



Ii6 Measure for Measure [Act iv 

Enter Varrius 

Duke. I thank thee, Varrius ; thou hast made good 
haste. 
Come, we will walk. There 's other of our friends 12 
Will greet us here anon, my gentle Varrius. [Exeunt. 

Scene VI. Street near the City Gate 
Enter Isabella and Mariana 

Isabella. To speak so indirectly I am loath. 
I would say the truth, but to accuse him so. 
That is your part ; yet I am advis'd to do it. 
He says, to veil full purpose. 

Mariana. Be rul'd by him. 

Isabella. Besides, he tells me that, if peradventure 
He speak against me on the adverse side, 
I should not think it strange ; for 't is a physic 
That 's bitter to sweet end. 

Mariana. I would Friar Peter — 

Isabella. O, peace ! the friar is come. 

Enter Friar Peter 

Friar Peter. Come, I have found you out a stand 
most fit, 10 

Where you may have such vantage on the duke 
He shall not pass you. Twice have the trumpets 

sounded ; 
The generous and gravest citizens 
Have hent the gates, and very near upon 
The duke is entering ; therefore, hence, away ! [Exeunt. 




The City Gate 



ACT V 

Scene I. The Citv Gate 



Mariana veiled, Isabella, and Friar Peter, at their 
stand. Enter Duke, Varrius, Lords, Angelo, 
EscALUs, Lucio, Provost, Officers, and Citizens, 
at several doors 

Duke. My very worthy cousin, fairly met ! — 
Our old and faithful friend, we are glad to see you. 

117 



ii8 Measure for Measure [Act v 

P / \ Happy return be to your royal grace ! 

Duke. Many and hearty thankings to you both. 
We have made mquiry of you ; and we hear 
Such goodness of your justice that our soul 
Cannot but yield you forth to public thanks, 
Forerunning more requital. 

Angela. You make my bonds still greater. 

Duke. O, your desert speaks loud; and I should 
wrong it, 
To lock it in the wards of covert bosom * lo 

When it deserves, with characters of brass, 
A forted residence 'gainst the tooth of time 
And razure of oblivion. Give me your hand, 
And let the subject see, to make them know 
That outward courtesies would fain proclaim 
Favours that keep within. — Come, Escalus, 
You must walk by us on our other hand ; 
And good supporters are you. 

Friar Peter and Isabella co?ne forward 

Friar Peter. Now is your time ; speak loud and 
kneel before him. 

Isabella. Justice, O royal duke ! Vail your regard 
Upon a wrong 'd, I would fain have said, a maid ! 21 
O worthy prince, dishonour not your eye 
By throwing it on any other object 
Till you have heard me in my true complaint 
And given me justice, justice, justice, justice ! 



Scene I] Measure for Measure 119 

Duke. Relate your wrongs ; in what ? by whom ? be 
brief. 
Here is Lord Angelo shall give you justice ; 
Reveal yourself to him. 

Isabella. O worthy duke, 

You bid me seek redemption of the devil. 
Hear me yourself ; for that which I must speak 30 

Must either punish me, not being believ'd. 
Or wring redress from you. Hear me, O hear me, here ! 

Angelo. My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm ; 
She hath been a suitor to me for her brother 
Cut off by course of justice, — 

Isabella. By course of justice ! 

Angelo. And she will speak most bitterly and strange. 

Isabella. Most strange, but yet most truly, will I 
speak : 
That Angelo 's forsworn ; is it not strange ? 
That Angelo 's a murtherer ; is 't not strange? 
That Angelo is an adulterous thief, 40 

An hypocrite, a virgin-violator ; 
Is it not strange and strange ? 

Duke. ^ Nay, it is ten times strange. 

Isabella. It is not truer he is Angelo 
Than this is all as true as it is strange. 
Nay, it is ten times true ; for truth is truth 
To the end of reckoning. 

Duke. Away with her ! — Poor soul. 

She speaks this in the infirmity of sense, 

Isabella. O prince, I conjure thee, as thou believ'st 



I20 Measure for Measure [Act v 

There is another comfort than this world, 

That thou neglect me not, with that opinion 50 

That I am touch'd with madness ! Make not impossible 

That which but seems unlike ; 't is not impossible 

But one, the wicked'st caitiff on the ground, 

May seem as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute 

As Angelo. Even so may Angelo, 

In all his dressings, characts, titles, forms, 

Be an arch-villain ; believe it, royal prince. 

If he be less, he 's nothing ; but he 's more. 

Had I more name for badness. 

Duke. By mine honesty, 

If she be mad, — as I believe no other, — 60 

Her madness hath the oddest frame of sense, 
Such a dependency of thing on thing. 
As e'er I heard in madness. 

Isabella. O gracious duke, 

Harp not on that, nor do not banish reason 
For inequality ; but let your reason serve 
To make the truth appear where it seems hid, 
And hide the false seems true. 

Duke, . Many that are not mad 

Have, sure, more lack of reason. — What would you 
say ? 

Isabella. I am the sister of one Claudio, 
Condemn 'd upon the act of fornication 70 

To lose his head, condemn'd by Angelo. 
I, in probation of a sisterhood. 
Was sent to by my brother ; one Lucio 



Scene I] Measure for Measure 121 

As then the messenger, — 

Lucio. That 's I, an 't like your grace. 

I came to her from Claudio, and desir'd her 
To try her gracious fortune with Lord Angelo 
For her poor brother's pardon. 

Isabella. That 's he indeed. 

Duke. You were not bid to speak. 

Lucio. No, my good lord, 

Nor wish'd to hold my peace. 

Duke. I wish you now, then. 

Pray you, take note of it ; and when you have 80 

A business for yourself, pray heaven you then 
Be perfect. 

Lucio. I warrant your honour. 

Dtike. The warrant 's for yourself ; take heed to 't. 

Isabella. This gentleman told somewhat of my tale, — 

Lucio. Right. 

Duke. It may be right, but you are i' the wrong 
To speak before your time — Proceed. 

Isabella. I went 

To this pernicious caitiff deputy, — 

Duke. That 's somewhat madly spoken. 

Isabella. Pardon it ; 

The phrase is to the matter. 90 

Duke. Mended again. The matter ; proceed. 

Isabella. In brief, to set the needless process by, 
How I persuaded, how I pray'd and kneel'd. 
How he refell'd me, and how I replied, — 
For this was of much length, — the vile conclusion 



122 Measure for Measure [Act V 

I now begin with grief and shame to utter. 

He would not, but by gift of my chaste body 

To his concupiscible intemperate lust, 

Release my brother ; and, after much debatement. 

My sisterly remorse confutes mine honour, loo 

And I did yield to him ; but the next morn betimes, 

His purpose surfeiting, he sends a warrant 

For my poor brother's head. 

Duke. This is most likely ! 

Isabella. O, that it were as like as it is true ! 

Duke. By heaven, fond wretch, thou know'st not 
what thou speak'st, || 

Or else thou art suborn'd against his honour 
In hateful practice. First, his integrity 
Stands without blemish. Next, it imports no reason 
That with such vehemency he should pursue 
Faults proper to himself. If he had so offended, no 
He would have weigh'd thy brother by himself. 
And not have cut him off. Some one hath set you on ; 
Confess the truth, and say by whose advice 
Thou cam'st here to complain. 

Isabella. And is this all ? 

Then, O you blessed ministers above. 
Keep me in patience, and with ripen 'd time 
Unfold the evil which is here wrapt up 
In countenance ! — Heaven shield your grace from 

woe. 
As I, thus wrong'd, hence unbelieved go ! 119 

Duke. I know you 'd fain be gone. — An officer ! — 



Scene I] Measure for Measure 123 

To prison with her ! — Shall we thus permit 

A blasting and a scandalous breath to fall 

On him so near us ? This needs must be a practice. 

Who knew of your intent and coming hither ? 

Isabella. One that I would were here, Friar Lodo- 
wick ! 

Duke. A ghostly father, belike. — Who knows that 
Lodowick ? 

Lucio. My lord, I know him ; 't is a meddling friar. 
I do not like the man ; had he been lay, my lord. 
For certain words he spake against your grace 
In your retirement, I had swing'd him soundly. 130 

Duke. Words against me ! this' a good friar, be- 
like ! 
And to set on this wretched woman here 
Against our substitute ! — Let this friar be found. 

Lucio. But yesternight, my lord, she and that friar, 
I saw them at the prison, — a saucy friar, 
A very scurvy fellow. 

Friar Peter. Blessed be your royal grace ! 
I have stood by, my lord, and I have heard 
Your royal ear abus'd. First, hath this woman 
Most wrongfully accus'd your substitute, 140 

Who is as free from touch or soil with her 
As she from one ungot. 

Duke. We did believe no less. 

Know you that Friar Lodowick that she speaks of ? 

Friar Peter. I know him for a man divine and holy ; 
Not scurvy, nor a temporary meddler, 



124 Measure for Measure [Act v 

As he 's reported by this gentleman, 
And, on my trust, a man that never yet 
Did, as he vouches, misreport your grace. 

Lticio. My lord, most villanously ; believe it. 

Friar Peter. Well, he in time may come to clear him- 
self, 150 
But at this instant he is sick, my lord. 
Of a strange fever. Upon his mere request, 
Being come to knowledge that there was complaint 
Intended 'gainst Lord Angelo, came I hither, 
To speak, as from his mouth, what he doth know 
Is true and false, and what he with his oath 
And all probation will make up full clear, 
Whensoever he 's con vented. First, for this woman. 
To justify this worthy nobleman. 

So vulgarly and personally accus'd, 160 

Her shall you hear disproved to her eyes, 
Till she herself confess it. 

Duke. Good friar, let 's hear it. — 

[IsabeHa is carj-ied off guarded ; afid Mariana 
coj7ies foi'ward. 
Do you not smile at this. Lord Angelo ? 
O heaven, the vanity of wretched fools ! — 
Give us some seats. — Come, cousin Angelo ; 
In this I '11 be impartial ; be you judge 
Of your own cause. — Is this the witness, friar ? 
First, let her show her face, and after speak. 

Mariana. Pardon, my lord ; I will not show my face 
Until my husband bid me. 170 



Scene I] Measure for Measure 125 

Duke. What, are you married ? 

Mariana. No, my lord. 

Duke. Are you a maid ? 

Mariana. No, my lord. 

Duke. A widow, then ? 

Mariaita. Neither, my lord. 

Duke. Why, you are nothing then ; neither maid, 
v/idow, nor wife ? 

Lucio. My lord, she may be a punk ; for many of 
them are neither maid, widow, nor wife. 180 

Duke. Silence that fellow; I would he had some 
cause 
To prattle for himself. 

Lucio. Well, my lord. 

Mariana. My lord, I do confess I ne'er was mar- 
ried ; 
And I confess besides I am no maid. 
I have known my husband ; yet my husband 
Knows not that ever he knew me. 

Lucio. He was drunk then, my lord ; it can be no 
better. 

Duke. For the benefit of silence, would thou wert 
so too ! 

Lucio. Well, my lord. '9° 

Duke. This is no witness for Lord Angelo. 

Mariana. Now I come to 't, my lord : 
She that accuses him of fornication 
In self -same manner doth accuse my husband, 
And charges him, my lord, with such a time 



126 Measure for Measure [Act v 

When I '11 depose I had him in mine arms 
With all the effect of love. 

Angelo. Charges she more than me ? 

Mariana. Not that I know. 

Duke. No ? you say your husband. 

Mariana. Why, just, my lord, and that is Angelo, 200 
Who thinks he knows that he ne'er knew my body, 
But knows, he thinks, that he knows Isabel's. 

Angelo. This is a strange abuse. — Let 's see thy 
face. 

Mariana. My husband bids me ; now I will un- 
mask. [ Unveiling. 
This is that face, thou cruel Angelo, 
Which once thou swor'st was worth the looking on ; 
This is the hand which, with a vow'd contract. 
Was fast belock'd in thine ; this is the body 
That took away the match from Isabel, 
And did supply thee at thy garden-house 210 
In her imagin'd person. 

Duke. Know you this woman ? 

Lucio. Carnally, she says. 

Duke. Sirrah, no more ! 

Lucio. Enough, my lord. 

Angelo, My lord, I must confess I know this woman ; 
And five years since there was some speech of mar- 
riage 
Betwixt myself and her, which was broke off, 
Partly for that her promised proportions 
Came short of composition, but in chief 



Scene I] Measure for Measure 127 

For that her reputation was disvalued 
In levity ; since which time of five years 220 

I never spake with her, saw her, nor heard from her. 
Upon my faith and honour. 

Mariana. Noble prince, 

As there comes light from heaven and words from 

breath, 
As there is sense in truth and truth in virtue, 
I am affianc'd this man's wife as strongly 
As words could make up vows ; and, my good lord, 
But Tuesday night last gone in 's garden-house 
He knew me as a wife. As this is true. 
Let me in safety raise me from my knees. 
Or else for ever be confixed here, 230 

A marble monument ! 

Angelo. I did but smile till now : 

Now, good my lord, give me the scope of justice ; 
My patience here is touch 'd. I do perceive 
These poor informal women are no more 
But instruments of some more mightier member 
That sets them on. Let me have way, my lord. 
To find this practice out. 

Duke. Ay, with my heart ; 

And punish them to your height of pleasure. — 
Thou foolish friar, and thou pernicious woman. 
Compact with her that 's gone, think 'st thou thy 
oaths, 240 

Though they would swear down each particular saint, 
Were testimonies against his worth and credit 



128 Measure for Measure [Act V 

That 's seal'd in approbation? — You, Lord Escalus, 
Sit with my cousin ; lend him your kind pains 
To find out this abuse, whence 't is deriv'd. — 
There is another friar that set them on ; 
Let him be sent for. 

Friar Peter. Would he were here, my lord ! for he 
indeed 
Hath set the women on to this complaint. 
Your provost knows the place where he abides, 250 
And he may fetch him. 

Duke. Go do it instantly. — \Exit Provost. 

And you, my noble and well-warranted cousin, 
Whom it concerns to hear this matter forth, 
Do with your injuries as seems you best. 
In any chastisement. I for a while will leave you ; 
But stir not you till you have well determin'd 
Upon these slanderers. 

Escalus. My lord, we '11 do it throughly. — 

\_ExitDuke. 
Signior Lucio, did not you say you knew that Friar 
Lodowick to be a dishonest person ? 260 

Lucio. Cucullus non facit monachum ; honest in 
nothing but in his clothes, and one that hath spoke 
most villanous speeches of the duke. 

Escalus. We shall entreat you to abide here till he 
come, and enforce them against him ; we shall find 
this friar a notable fellow. 

Lucio. As any in Vienna, on my word. 

Escalus. Call that same Isabel here once again ; I 



( 



Scene I] Measure for Measure 129 

would speak with her. — \_Exif an Attendant.'] Pray 
you, my lord, give me leave to question ; you shall 
see how 1 '11 handle her. 271 

Lucio. Not better than he, by her own report. 

Escalus. Say you ? 

Lucio, Marry, sir, I think, if you handled her pri- 
vately, she would sooner confess; perchance, pub- 
licly, she '11 be ashamed. 

Escalus. I will go darkly to work with her. 

Lucio. That 's the way ; for women are light at 
midnight. 

Re-enter O^Q.Q.x?, with Isabella; and 'Pkov 0^1: with the 
Duke i7i his friar's habit 

Escalus. Come on, mistress. — Here 's a gentle- 
woman denies all that you have said. 281 

Lucio. My lord, here comes the rascal I spoke of, 
here with the provost. 

Escalus. In very good time ; speak not you to him 
till we call upon you. 

Lucio. Mum. 

Escalus. Come, sir ; did you set these women on 
to slander Lord Angelo? they have confessed you did. 

Duke. 'T is false. 

Escalus. How ! know you where you are ? 290 

Duke. Respect to your great place ! and let the 
devil 
Be sometime honour'd for his burning throne ! — 
Where is the duke ? 't is he should hear me speak. 

MEASURE FOR MEASURE — 9 



I JO Measure for Measure [Act v 

Escalus. The duke 's in us, and we will hear you 
speak ; 
Look you speak justly. 

Duke. Boldly, at least. — But, O, poor souls, 
Come you to seek the lamb here of the fox ? 
Good night to your redress ! Is the duke gone ? 
Then is your cause gone too. The duke 's unjust. 
Thus to retort your manifest appeal, 300 

And put your trial in the villain's mouth 
Which here you come to accuse. 

Lucio. This is the rascal ; this is he I spoke of. 

Escalus. Why, thou unreverend and unhallow'd friar. 
Is 't not enough thou hast suborn 'd these women 
To accuse this worthy man, but, in foul mouth 
And in the witness of his proper ear. 
To call him villain ? and then to glance from him 
To the duke himself, to tax him with injustice ? — 
Take him hence ; to the rack with him ! — We '11 touze 
you 310 

Joint by joint but we will know his purpose. 
What, unjust ! 

Duke. Be not so hot ; the duke 

Dare no more stretch this finger of mine than he 
Dare rack his own ; his subject am I not, 
Nor here provincial. My business in this state 
Made me a looker-on here in Vienna, 
Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble 
Till it o'er-run the stew; laws for all faults. 
But faults so countenanc'd that the strong statutes 



Scene I] Measure for Measure 131 

Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop, 320 

As much in mock as mark. 

Escalus. Slander to the state! Away with him to 
prison ! 

Angela. What can you vouch against him, Signior 
Lucio ? 
Is this the man that you did tell us of ? 

Lucio. 'T is he, my lord. — Come hither, goodman 
bald-pate ; do you know me ? 

Duke, I remember you, sir, by the sound of your 
voice ; I met you at the prison, in the absence of the 
duke. 

Lucio. O, did you so? And do you remember 
what you said of the duke ? 331 

Duke. Most notedly, sir. 

Lucio. Do you so, sir ? And was the duke a 
fleshmonger, a fool, and a coward, as you then 
reported him to be ? 

Duke. You must, sir, change persons with me, 
ere you make that my report ; you, indeed, spoke so 
of him, and much more, much worse. 

Lucio. O, thou damnable fellow ! Did not I pluck 
thee by the nose for thy speeches ? 340 

Duke. I protest I love the duke as I love myself. 

Angelo. Hark, how the villain would close now, 
after his treasonable abuses ! 

Escalus. Such a fellow is not to be talked withal. 
— Away with him to prison ! Where is the provost ? 
- — Away with him to prison ! lay bolts enough upon 



132 Measure for Measure [Act v 

him ; let him speak no more. — Away with those gig- 
lots too, and with the other confederate companion ! 

Duke. \To Frovost] Stay, sir ; stay awhile. 

Angela. What, resists he ? — Help him, Lucio. 350 

Lucio. Come, sir ; come, sir ; come, sir ; foh, sir ! 
Why, you bald-pated, lying rascal, you must be 
hooded, must you ? Show your knave's visage, with 
a pox to you ! show your sheep-biting face, and be 
hanged an hour ! Will 't not off ? 

[Pulls off the Friafs hood and discovers the Duke. 

Duke. Thou art the first knave that e'er mad'st a 
duke. — 
First, provost, let me bail these gentle three. — 
\To Lucio'] Sneak not away, sir, for the friar and you 
Must have a word anon. — Lay hold on him. 

Lucio. This may prove worse than hanging. 360 

Duke [To Fscalus] What you have spoke I pardon; 
sit you down. 
We'll borrow place of him. — [To Angelo] Sir, by 

your leave. 
Hast thou or word, or wit, or impudence. 
That yet can do thee office ? If thou hast. 
Rely upon it till my tale be heard, 
And hold no longer out. 

Angelo. O my dread lord, 

I should be guiltier than my guiltiness. 
To think I can be undiscernible 
When I perceive your grace, like power divine. 
Hath look'd upon my passes. Then, good prince, 370 



Scene I] Measure for Measure 133 

No longer session hold upon my shame, 
But let my trial be mine own confession. 
Immediate sentence then and sequent death 
Is all the grace I beg. 

Duke. Come hither, Mariana. — 

Say, wast thou e'er contracted to this woman ? 

Angela. I was, my lord. 

Duke. Go take her hence, and marry her instantly. — 
Do you the office, friar ; which consummate, 
Return him here again. — Go with him, provost. 

\_Exeu7it Angelo, Mariana, Friar Peter, and Provost. 

Escalus. My lord, I am more amaz'd at his dishonour 
Than at the strangeness of it. 

Duke. Come hither, Isabel. 

Your friar is now your prince ; as I was then 382 

Advertising and holy to your business, 
Not changing heart with habit, I am still 
Attorney'd at your service. 

Isabella. O, give me pardon, 

That I, your vassal, have employ'd and pain'd 
Your unknown sovereignty ! 

Duke. You are pardon 'd, Isabel ; 

And now, dear maid, be you as free to us. 
Your brother's death, I know, sits at your heart ; 
And you may marvel why I obscur'd myself, 39a 

Labouring to save his life, and would not rather 
Make rash remonstrance of my hidden power 
Than let him so be lost. O most kind maid, 
It was the swift celerity of his death. 



134 Measure for Measure [Act V 

Which I did think with slower foot came on, 

That brain 'd my purpose. But, peace be with him ! 

That Hfe is better life, past fearing death, 

Than that which lives to fear. Make it your comfort, 

So happy is your brother. 

Isabella. I do, my lord. 

Re-enter Angelo, Mariana, Friar Peter, and Provost 

Duke. For this new-married man approaching here, 
Whose salt imagination yet hath wrong'd 401 

Your well defended honour, you must pardon 
For Mariana's sake ; but as he adjudg'd your brother, — 
Being criminal, in double violation 
Of sacred chastity and of promise-breach 
Thereon dependent, for your brother's life, — 
The very mercy of the law cries out 
Most audible, even from his proper tongue, 
' An Angelo for Claudio, death for death ! ' 
Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure ; 
Like doth quit like, and measure still for measure. — 
Then, Angelo, thy fault 's thus manifested, 412 

Which, though thou wouldst deny, denies thee vantage. 
We do condemn thee to the very block 
Where Claudio stoop'd to death, and with like haste. — 
Away with him ! 

Mariana. O my most gracious lord, 

I hope you will not mock me with a nusband. 

Duke. It is your husband mock'd you with a 
husband. 



Scene I] Measure for Measure 135 

Consenting to the safeguard of your honour, 

I thought your marriage fit ; else imputation, 420 

For that he knew you, might reproach your hfe 

And choke your good to come. For his possessions, 

Although by confutation they are ours, 

We do instate and widow you withal. 

To buy you a better husband. 

Mariana. O my dear lord, 

I crave no other, nor no better man. 

Duke. Never crave him ; we are definitive. 

Mariana. Gentle my hege, — \_Kneeling. 

Duke. You do but lose your labour. — 

Away with him to death ! — \To Lucio] Now, sir, to you. 

Mariana. O my good lord ! — Sweet Isabel, take my 
part ; 430 

Lend me your knees, and all my life to come 
I '11 lend you all my life to do you service. 

Duke. Against all sense you do importune her. 
Should she kneel down in mercy of this fact, 
Her brother's ghost his paved bed would break 
And take her hence in horror. 

Mariana. Isabel, 

Sweet Isabel, do yet but kneel by me ; 
Hold up your hands, say nothing, I '11 speak all, * 

They say, best men are moulded out of faults. 
And, for the most, become much more the better 440 
For being a little bad ; so may my husband. 
O Isabel, will you not lend a knee ? 

Duke. He dies for Claudio's death. 



136 Measure for Measure [Act v 

Isabella. Most bounteous sir, [^Kneeling. 

Look, if it please you, on this man condemn'd, 
As if my brother liv'd. I partly think 
A due sincerity govern 'd his deeds 
Till he did look on me ; since it is so. 
Let him not die. My brother had but justice, 
In that he did the thing for which he died. 
For Angelo, 450 

His act did not o'ertake his bad intent. 
And must be buried but as an intent 
That perish 'd by the way. Thoughts are no sub- 
jects, — 
Intents but merely thoughts. 

Mariana. Merely, my lord. 

Duke. Your suit 's unprofitable ; stand up, I say. — 
I have bethought me of another fault. — 
Provost, how came it Claudio was beheaded 
At an unusual hour ? 

Provost. It was commanded so. 

Duke. Had you a special warrant for the deed ? 

Provost. No, my good lord ; it was by private mes- 
sage. 460 

Duke. For which I do discharge you of your office ; 
Give up your keys. 

Provost. Pardon me, noble lord. 

I thought it was a fault, but knew it not, 
Yet did repent me, after more advice ; 
For testimony whereof, one in the prison, 
That should by private order else have died, 



Scene I] Measure for Measure 137 

I have reserv'd alive. 

Duke. What 's he ? 

Provost. His name is Barnardine. 

Duke. I would thou hadst done so by Claudio. — 
Go fetch him hither ; let me look upon him. 

\Exit Provost. 

Escalus. I am sorry, one so learned and so wise 470 
As you, Lord Angelo, have still appear'd 
Should slip so grossly, both in the heat of blood 
And lack of temper'd judgment afterward. 

Angelo. I am sorry that such sorrow I procure, 
And so deep sticks it in my penitent heart 
That I crave death more willingly than mercy ; 
'T is my deserving and I do entreat it. 

Re-enter Provost, with Barnardine, Claudio muffled, 

and Juliet 

Duke. Which is that Barnardine ? 

Provost. This, my lord. 

Duke. There was a friar told me of this man. — 
Sirrah, thou art said to have a stubborn soul 480 

That apprehends no further than this world. 
And squar'st thy life according. Thou 'rt condemn'd ; 
But, for those earthly faults, I quit them all, 
And pray thee take this mercy to provide 
For better times to come. — Friar, advise him ; 
I leave him to your hand. — What muffled fellow 's 
that? 

Provost. This is another prisoner that I sav'd. 



138 Measure for Measure [Actv 

Who should have died when Claudio lost his head, 

As like almost to Claudio as himself. \Unmuffles Claudio. 

Duke. \_To Isabella^ If he be like your brother, for 
his sake 490 

Is he pardon 'd ; and, for your lovely sake, 
Give me your hand, and say you will be mine, 
He is my brother too ; — but fitter time for that. 
By this Lord Angelo perceives he 's safe ; 
Methinks I see a quickening in his eye. — 
Well, Angelo, your evil quits you well. 
Look that you love your wife ; her worth worth yours. — 
I find an apt remission in myself ; 
And yet here 's one in place I cannot pardon. — 
\To Lucio] You, sirrah, that knew me for a fool, a 
coward, 500 

One all of luxury, an ass, a madman, 
Wherein have I deserved so of you 
That you extol me thus ? 

Lucio. Faith, my lord, I spoke it but according 
to the trick. If you will hang me for it, you may ; 
but I had rather it would please you I might be 
whipt. 

Duke. Whipt first, sir, and hang'd after. — 
Proclaim it, provost, round about the city. 
If any woman 's wrong'd by this lewd fellow — 510 

As I have heard him swear himself there 's one 
Whom he begot with child — let her appear. 
And he shall marry her ; the nuptial finish 'd, 
Let him be whipt and hang'd. 



Scene I] Measure for Measure 139 

Lucio. I beseech your highness, do not marry me 
to a whore. Your highness said even now, I made 
you a duke ; good my lord, do not recompense me in 
making me a cuckold. 

Duke. Upon mine honour, thou shalt marry her. 
Thy slanders I forgive, and therewithal 520 

Remit thy other forfeits. — Take him to prison 
And see our pleasure herein executed. 

Lucio. Marrying a punk, my lord, is pressing to 
death, whipping, and hanging. 

Duke. Slandering a prince deserves it. — 

\_Exeunt Officers with Lucio. 
She, Claudio, that you wrong'd, look you restore. — 
Joy to you, Mariana ! — Love her, Angelo ; 
I have confess 'd her and I know her virtue. — 
Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness ; 
There 's more behind that is more gratulate. — 530 

Thanks, provost, for thy care and secrecy ; 
We shall employ thee in a worthier place. — 
Forgive him, Angelo, that brought you home 
The head of Ragozine for Claudio's ; 
The oif ence pardons itself. — Dear Isabel, 
I have a motion much imports your good. 
Whereto if you '11 a willing ear incline. 
What 's mine is yours and what is yours is mine. — 
So, bring us to our palace, where we '11 show 
What 's yet behind that 's meet you all should know. 540 

\_Exeunt. 



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Death and the Fool 



NOTES 

Introduction 

The Metre of the Play. — It should be understood at the 
outset that metre, or the mechanism of verse, is something alto- 
gether distinct from the music of verse. The one is matter of rule, 
the other of taste and feeling. Music is not an absolute necessity 
of verse ; the metrical form is a necessity, being that which consti- 
tutes the verse. 

The plays of Shakespeare (with the exception of rhymed pas- 
sages, and of occasional songs and interludes) are all in unrhymed 
or blank verse ; and the normal form of this blank verse is illus- 
trated by the sixth line of the present play : " Exceeds, in that, the 
lists of all advice." 

This line, it will be seen, consists of ten syllables, with the even 
syllables (2d, 4th, 6th, 8th, and loth) accented, the odd syllables 
(ist, 3d, etc.) being unaccented. Theoretically, it is made up of 
five feet of two syllables each, with the accent on the second sylla- 
ble. Such a foot is called an iambus (plural, iambuses, or the Latin 
iambi), and the form of verse is called iambic. 

This fundamental law of Shakespeare's verse is subject to certain 
modifications, the most important of which are as follows : — . 

143 



144 Notes 

1. After the tenth syllable an unaccented syllable (or even two 
such syllables) may be added, forming what is sometimes called a 
female line ; as in i. i. 5 : " Since I am put to know that your 
own science." The rhythm is complete with the first syllable of 
science, the second being an extra eleventh syllable. See also lines 
9, 12, 13, 14, 20, 23, etc. In i. 2. 155 we have two extra syllables 
in Juliet. 

2. The accent in any part of the verse may be shifted from an 
even to an odd syllable; as in i. i. 19: "Lent him our terror, 
dress'd him with our love ; " and 25 : " Always obedient to your 
grace's will." In both lines the accent is shifted from the second 
to the first syllable. This change occurs very rarely in the tenth 
syllable, and seldom in the fourth ; and it is not allowable in two 
successive accented syllables. 

3. An extra unaccented syllable may occur in any part of the 
line ; as in i. i. 3, 4, and 27. In 3 and 4 the word to is superfluous, 
and in 27 the second syllable of character. In 28 the word the is 
superfluous. 

4. Any unaccented syllable, occurring in an even place immedi- 
ately before or after an even syllable which is properly accented, is 
reckoned as accented for the purposes of the verse ; as, for instance, 
in lines 15 and 20. In 15 the last syllable of Angela, and in 20 the 
first of deputation, are metrically equivalent to accented syllables; 
and so with the third syllable of excellence in 37 and of creditor 
in 39. 

5. In many instances in Shakespeare words must be lengthened 
in order to fill out the rhythm : — 

(a) In a large class of words in which e or i is followed by 
another vowel, the e or i is made a separate syllable ; as ocean, 
opinion, soldier, patience, partial, marriage, etc. For instance, in 
this play, i. i. 47 ("Take thy commission. Now, good my lord") 
appears to have only nine syllables, but commission is a quadrisyl- 
lable ; and Russia in ii. I. 138 ("This will last out a night in 
Russia ") is a trisyllable, with two accents. This lengthening 



Notes 



145 



occurs most frequently at the end of the line, but see note on 
i. I. 47. 

((5) Many monosyllables ending in r, re, rs, res, preceded by a 
long vowel or diphthong, are often made dissyllables ; z.% fare, fear, 
dear, fire, hair, hour, more, your, etc. If the word is repeated in 
a verse it is often both monosyllable and dissyllable ; as in M. of V. 
iii. 2. 20 : " And so, though yours, not yours. Prove it so," where 
either yours (preferably the first) is a dissyllable, the other being a 
monosyllable. In J. C. iii. i. 172: "As fire drives out fire, so pity, 
pity," the first fire is a dissyllable. 

(^) Words containing / or r, preceded by another consonant, 
are often pronounced as if a vowel came between or after the con- 
sonants ; as in T. of S. ii. i, 158: "While she did call me rascal 
fiddler" [fiddl(e)er] ; All's Well, iii. 5. 43: "If you will tarry, 
holy pilgrim" [pilg(e)rim] ; C. of E. v. I. 360: "These are the 
parents of these children" (childeren, the original form of the 
word) ; W. T. iv. 4. 76 : " Grace and remembrance [remem- 
b(e)rance] be to you both ! " etc. 

(d^) Monosyllabic exclamations {ay, O, yea, nay, hail, etc.) and 
monosyllables otherwise emphasized are similarly lengthened ; also 
certain longer words; as commandement in M. of V. iv. I. 451 ; 
safety (trisyllable) in Ham. i. 3. 21 ; business (trisyllable, as origi- 
nally pronounced) in J. C iv. I. 22: "To groan and sweat under 
the business " (so in several other passages) ; and other words 
mentioned in the notes to the plays in which they occur. 

6. Words are also contracted for metrical reasons, like plurals 
and possessives ending in a sibilant, as balance, horse (for horses 
and horse's^, princess, sense, marriage (plural and possessive), 
image, etc. So with many adjectives in the superlative (like 
wickedest in v. I. 53, sternest., kindest, secret' st, etc.), and certain 
other words. 

7. The accent of words is also varied in many instances for 
metrical reasons. Thus we find both revenue and revenue in 
the first scene of M. N. D. (lines 6 and 158), cdmplete (see on 

MEASURE FOR MEASURE — lO 



146 Notes 

i. 3. 3) and complete^ edict and edict (see on ii. 2. 92), severe (see 
on ii. 2. 41) and severe, cdntract and contrdct (see on i. 2. 134), 
cdnfine (noun) and confine, pursue and pursue, distinct and dis- 
tinct, etc. 

These instances of variable accent must not be confounded with 
those in which words were uniformly accented differently in the 
time of Shakespeare; like aspect, impdrtune (see on i. i. 56 and 
V. I. ^■^T)) , sepulchre (\exh'),persever (vitytx persevere), perseverance, 
rheumatic, etc. 

8. Alexandrines, or verses of twelve syllables, with six accents, 
occur here and there in the plays. They must not be confounded 
with female lines with two extra syllables (see on i above) or with 
other lines in which two extra unaccented syllables may occur. 

9. Inco7nplete verses, of one or more syllables, are scattered 
through the plays. See i. i. i, 2, 75, 80, etc. 

10. Doggerel measure is used in the very earliest comedies 
(Z. Z. Z. and C. of E. in particular) in the mouths of comic 
characters, but nowhere else in those plays, and never anywhere 
in plays written after 1598. 

11. Rhyme occurs frequently in the early plays, but diminishes 
with comparative regularity from that period until the latest. Thus, 
in Z. Z. Z. there are about 11 00 rhyming verses (about one-third 
of the whole number), in M. N. D. about 900, in Rich. II. and 
R. ajid J. about 500 each, while in Cor. and A. and C. there 
are only about 40 each, in Temp, only two, and in W. T. none at 
all, except in the chorus introducing act iv, which may not be 
Shakespeare's. Songs, interludes, and other matter not in ten- 
syllable measure are not included in this enumeration. In the 
present play, out of some 1500 ten-syllable verses, only about 80 
are in rhyme. 

Alternate rhymes are found only in the plays written before 
1599 OJ^ 1600. In M. of V. there are only four lines at the end 
of iii. 2. In Much Ado and A. Y. Z. we also find a few lines, but 
none at all in this and subsequent plays. 



Notes 



147 



Rhymed couplets, or " rhyme-tags," are often found at the end of 
scenes; as in 7 of the 17 scenes of the present play. In Ham. 
14 out of 20 scenes, and in Macb. 21 out of 28, have such "tags ;" 
but in the latest plays they are not so frequent. In Temp., for 
instance, there is but one, and in W. T. none. 

12. In this edition of Shakespeare, the final -ed of past tenses 
and participles in verse is printed -d when the word is to be pro- 
nounced in the ordinary way ; as in dress'' d, line 19, and touMd, 
line ^5, of the first scene. But when the metre requires that the 
-ed be made a separate syllable, the e is retained ; as in enriched, 
line 12, where the word is a trisyllable. The only variation from 
this rule is in verbs like cry, die, sue, etc., the -ed of which is very 
rarely, if ever, made a separate syllable. 

Shakespeare's Use of Verse and Prose in the Plays. — 
This is a subject to which the critics have given very little attention, 
but it is an interesting study. In this play we find scenes entirely in 
verse (none entirely in prose) and others in which the two are mixed. 
In general, we may say that verse is used for what is distinctly 
poetical, and prose for what is not poetical. The distinction, how- 
ever, is not so clearly marked in the earlier as in the later plays. 
The second scene of M. of V., for instance, is in prose, because 
Portia and Nerissa are talking about the suitors in a familiar and 
playful way ; but in T. G. of V., where Julia and Lucetta are dis- 
cussing the suitors of the former in much the same fashion, the 
scene is in verse. Dowden, commenting on Rich. II., remarks: 
" Had Shakespeare written the play a few years later, we may be 
certain that the gardener and his servants (iii. 4) would not have 
uttered stately speeches in verse, but would have spoken homely 
prose, and that humour would have mingled with the pathos of the 
scene. The same remark may be made with reference to the sub- 
sequent scene (v. 5) in which his groom visits the dethroned king 
in the Tower." Comic characters and those in low life generally 
speak in prose in the later plays, as Dowden intimates, but in the very 
earliest ones doggerel verse is much used instead. 



148 Notes 

The change from prose to verse is well illustrated in the third 
scene of M. of V. It begins with plain prosaic talk about a 
business matter ; but when Antonio enters, it rises at once to the 
higher level of poetry. The sight of Antonio reminds Shylock of 
his hatred of the Merchant, and the passion expresses itself in 
verse, the vernacular tongue of poetry. 

The reasons for the choice of prose or verse are not always so 
clear as in this instance. We are seldom puzzled to explain the 
prose, but not unfrequently we meet with verse where we might 
expect prose. As Professor Corson remarks (^Introduction to Shake- 
speare, 1889), "Shakespeare adopted verse as the general tenor of 
his language, and therefore expressed much in verse that is within 
the capabilities of prose ; in other words, his verse constantly en- 
croaches upon the domain of prose, but his prose can never be said 
to encroach upon the domain of verse." If in rare instances we 
think we find exceptions to this latter statement, and prose actually 
seems to usurp the place of verse, I believe that careful study of 
the passage will prove the supposed exception to be apparent 
rather than real. 

Some Books for Teachers and Students. — A few out of the 
many books that might be commended to the teacher and the criti- 
cal student are the following : Halliwell-Phillipps's Outlines of the 
Life of Shakespeare (7th ed. 1887); Sidney Lee's Life of Shake- 
speare (1898; for ordinary students the abridged ed. of 1899 is 
preferable) ; Rolfe's Life of Shakespeare ; Schmidt's Shakespeare 
Lexicon (3d ed. 1902) ; Littledale's ed. of Dyce's Glossary (1902) ; 
Bartlett's Concordance to Shakespeare (1895); Abbott's Shake- 
spearian Grammar (1873); Furness's "New Variorum" ed. of 
the plays (encyclopaedic and exhaustive) ; Dowden's Shakspere : 
His Mind and Art (American ed. 1881); Hudson's Life, Art, 
and Characters of Shakespeare (revised ed. 1882); Mrs. Jame- 
son's Characteristics of Women (several eds. ; some with the title, 
Shakespeare Heroines^ ; Ten Brink's Five Lectures on Shakespeare 
(1895); Boas's Shakespeare and His Predecessors {\.%()^'y Dyer's 



i 

I 



Notes 149 

Folk-lore of Shakespeare (American ed. 1884); Gervinus's Shake- 
speare Coinmentaries (Bunnett's translation, 1875) > Wordsworth's 
Shakespeare's Knowledge of the Bible (3d ed. 1880); Elson's Shake- 
speare in Music ( 1 90 1 ) . 

Some of the above books will be useful to all readers who are 
interested in special subjects or in general criticism of Shakespeare. 
Among those which are better suited to the needs of ordinary 
readers and students, the following may be mentioned : Mabie's 
William Shakespeare : Poet, Dramatist, and Man (1900); Dow- 
den's Shakspere Primer (1877; small but invaluable); Rolfe's 
Shakespeare the Boy (1896 ; not a mere juvenile book, but treating 
of the home and school life, the games and sports, the manners, 
customs, and folk-lore of the poet's time); Guerber's Myths of 
Greece and Rome (for young students who may need informa- 
tion on mythological allusions not explained in the notes). 

H. Snowden Ward's Shakespeare's Town and Times (2d ed. 
1902) and John Leyland's Shakespeare Country (2d ed. 1903) are 
copiously illustrated books (yet inexpensive) which may be par- 
ticularly commended for school libraries. 

Abbreviations in the Notes. — The abbreviations of the 
names of Shakespeare's plays will be readily understood ; as 
T. N. for Twelfth Night, Cor. for Coriolanus, 3 Hen, VI. for 
The Third Part of King Henry the Sixth, etc. P. P. refers to 
The Passionate Pilgrim ; V. and A. to Venus and Adonis ; L. C. 
to Lover'' s Complaint ; and Sonn. to the Sonnets. 

Other abbreviations that hardly need explanation are Cf. {confer, 
compare), Fol. (following), Id. {idem, the same), and Prol. (pro- 
logue). The numbers of the lines in the references (except for the 
present play) are those of the " Globe " edition (the cheapest and 
best edition of Shakespeare in one compact volume), which is now 
generally accepted as the standard for line-numbers in works of ref- 
erence (Schmidt's Lexicon, Abbott's Grammar, Dowden's Primer, 
the publications of the New Shakspere Society, etc.) . 



ISO 



Notes 



[Act I 



ACT I 

Dramatis Persons. — ^The following list is given in the folio at 
the end of the play : — 



T/ie Scene Vienna. 

The names of all the Actors. 

Vinceniio, the Duke. 
Angelio, the Deputie. 
Escalus, an ancient Lord. 
Claudia, a yong Gentlevian. 
Lucio, a fantastiqtie. 
2. other like Gentlemen. 
Prouost. 



Thomas. ) — . 
Peter. ]^' Friers. 

Elbow, a simple Constable. 
Froth, a foolish Gentleman. 
Clowne. 

Abhorson, an Executioner. 
Barnardine, a dissolute prisoner. 
Isabella, sister to Claudio. 
Mariana, betrothed to Angelio. 
luliet, beloued of Claudio. 
Francisca, a Nun. 
Mistris Ouer-don, a Baivd. 



Scene I. — 5. Put to know. Compelled to acknowledge. Cf. 2 
Hen. VI. iii. i. 43 : " had I first put to speak my mind ;" and Cymb. 
ii. 3. 1 10: "You put me to forget a lady's manners." 

6. Lists. Bounds, limits. Cf. 0th. 'w. i. 76: " Confine yourself 
within a patient list ; " and see also Ham. iv. 5. 99, Hen. V. v. 2. 
295, etc. 

7, 8. No m-ore remains But that, etc. A passage which has per- 
plexed the commentators. The folio reads : — 

" Then no more remaines 
But that, to your sufficiency, as your worth is able, 
And let them worke : " 

Theobald conjectured that something had been lost, and attempted 
to supply it thus : — 

" But that to your sufficiency you add 
Due diligency as your worth is able." 

Hanmer gave : — 

" But that to your suficiency you join 
A will to serve us as your worth is able;" 



Scene ij Notes 151 

and Tyrwhitt conjectured : — 

" But that to your suficiency you put 
A zeal as willing as your worth is able." 

Sundry other ways of filling the supposed gap have been proposed, 
but these will serve as samples. Others have assumed that the 
passage is not defective but corrupt, and have tried to emend it by 
reading "But that to your sufficiencies your worth is abled ; " " But 
your sufficiency as worth is able ; " " But thereto your sufficiency," 
etc. ; " But add to your sufficiency your worth, And let," etc. The 
pointing in the text is due to White, who takes that to be the demon- 
strative referring to science, and remains to be = is wanting. The 
meaning then is : " then, as your worth is able [that is, your high 
character rendering you competent], no more is wanting to com- 
plete your capacity for the fulfilment of your trust but that [that is, 
that knowledge of government of which I have just spoken] ; and 
let them [that is, that knowledge and your worth] work together." 
If that does not refer to science^ it may refer, as Verplanck suggests, 
" to the commission, which the Duke must have in his hand, or be- 
fore him," as is evident from 13 just below. Staunton explains that 
in the same way, and would read : 

" But that [tendering his commission] to your sufficiency, 
And, as your worth is able, let them work." 

Clarke finds the antecedent of that in strength = " the governing 
power embodied in the commission he gives him." Any one of 
these interpretations of the original text is to be preferred to any 
of the proposed emendations, except perhaps Tyrwhitt's, which is 
plausible in thought but not like S. in expression. 

10. Terms. "The technical language of the courts. An old 
book called Les Termes de la ley (written in Henry the Eighth's 
time) was in Shakespeare's days, and is now, the accidence of 
young students in the law" (Blackstone). 

11. Pregnant. Ready. Cf. T. and C. iv. 4. 90: "most prompt 
and pregnant." See also Lear, ii. i. 78, Ham. iii. 2. 66, etc. 



I 



152 Notes [Act I 

14. Warp. Deviate. It is used in a somewhat similar figu- 
rative way (change from a straight or proper course) in A. V. Z. iii. 
3. 90. See also iii. i. 141 below. 

16. What figU7'e of us, etc. How do you think he will represent 
ox personate us? 

17. With special soul. This expression has troubled some of the 
critics, and " roll " and " seal " have been suggested in its place. Of 
course it is = with special preference, 5oz^/ being used as heart oi\.Q.Vi. 
is. Steevens compares Temp. iii. i. 44: — - 

" for several virtues 
Have I lik'd several women, never any 
With so full soul," etc. 

20. Deputation. Deputyship, vicegerency. Cf. i Hen. IV. iv. 
I. 32, iv. 3. 87, etc. 

27. Character. In its original sense of writing; as in i. 2. 155 
and V. I. II below. Johnson asks, "What is there peculiar in 
this, that a man's life informs the observer of his history?'''' and 
conjectures " look " for life. Mason thought that character and 
history should be transposed. Of course, no change is called for, 
the meaning being simply : in the record of your outward life we 
read your whole history. 

29. Belongings. Endowments ; used by S. only here. 

30. So proper. So personally or peculiarly. Cf. T. of A. i. 2. 
106 : " What better or properer can we call our own than the riches 
of our friends?" See also v. i. no below. 

31. They on thee. Hanmer "corrected" they to " them," and 
has been followed by many editors ; but such slips in pronouns are 
common in S. Cf. iii. i. 215 below. 

2^"}^. For if our virtues, etc. Theobald quotes Horace's 

" Paulum sepultae distat inertiae 
Celata virtus." 

36. To fine issues. " For high purposes" (Johnson). 



Scene I] Notes I ^^ 

38. S^e determines, etc. " She requires and allots to herself the 
same advantages that creditors usually enjoy, — thanks for the en- 
dowments she has bestowed, and extraordinary exertions in those 
whom she hath thus favoured, by way of interest for what she has 
lent " (Malone). For use = interest, cf. Muc/i Ado, ii. i. 288 : " He 
lent it me awhile, and I gave him use for it," etc. 

40. But I do bend my speech, etc. " I direct my speech to one 
who is able to teach me how to govern" (Warburton). My part 
in him = my office delegated to him. For advertise = instruct, cf. 
Jlen. VIII. ii. 4. 178: — 

" Wherein he might the king his lord advertise 
Whether our daughter were legitimate," etc. 

The accent in S. is regularly on the penult. See also v. i. 383 
below. 

42. Hold, therefore, Angela. If nothing has been lost here, we 
must accept Steevens's explanation that this is what the duke says on 
tendering his commission to him. Hold is often used in this inter- 
jectional way both alone and in connection with another verb ; as 
in M. W. i. 3. 88 : " Hold, bear you these letters ; " Id. i. 4. 166: 
" Hold, there 's money for thee," etc. So also reflexively ; as in 
A. W. iv. 5. 46 : " Hold thee, there 's my purse ; " /. C. v. 3. 85 : 
" Hold thee, take this garland on thy brow," etc. Johnson explains 
it : " That is, continue to be Angelo ; hold as thou art." Tyrwhitt 
thinks that "the duke may be understood to speak of himself: Let 
me therefore hold, or stop," as if checking himself in a needless 
exhortation. 

43. In our remove. In our absence. 

44. Mortality and mercy, etc. "That is, *I delegate to thy 
tongue the power of pronouncing sentence of death, and to thy 
heart the privilege of exercising mercy.' These are words of great 
import, and ought to be made clear, as on them depends the chief 
incident of the play" (Douce). 

46. First in question. " First called for, first appointed " 



154 Notes [Act I 

(Johnson). Schmidt makes it = "first in consideration," which is 
perhaps to be preferred. 

47. Commission. Metrically a quadrisyllable. This making two 
syllables of -ion is rare in the middle of a line. To the examples 
given by Abbott {Grammar, 479) I can, however, add the present, 
with I Hen. IV. iv. I. 62 ("division"), 3 Hen. VI. i. I. 133 
("rebellion"), and Hen. VIII. ii. 4. I ("commission"). Cf. 
"patient" in 3 Hen. VI. i. i. 215. 

51. leavened. Well considered ;" not declared as soon as it fell 
into the imagination, but suffered to work long in the mind" 
(Johnson). 

54. That it prefers itself, etc. That is, it places itself before the 
most important business. Unquestioned = unexamined ; as in 
A. W, ii. I. 211. 

56. Importune. Always accented on the penult by S. Cf. v. I. 
429 below, 

61. Bring you. Escort or accompany you ; as often. See W. 
T. iv. 3. 122, Hen. V. ii. 3. I, etc. Cf. Genesis, xviii. 16, Acts, xxi. 
5, 2 Corinthians, i. 16, etc. The adverbial use of something is 
common. 

64. Your scope. "Your amplitude of power " (Johnson). 

68. Stage me. Make a show of myself. For the verb, cf. A. and 
C. iii. 13. 30 and v. 2. 217. On the passage, see p. 10 above. 

70. Aves. "All-hails" {Cor. v. 3. 139), acclamations. 

72. Does affect it. Is fond of it, or pleased with it ; a common 
use of affect. 

78. To look into the bottom of my place. That is, to know it 
thoroughly. 

Scene II. — 4. Its. One of the rare instances of the word in S. 
and the only one in the folio with the modern spelling. Elsewhere 
(nine times), the form is "it's." The possessive it is found four- 
teen times, in seven of which it precedes own. In our version of 
the Bible its occurs only in leviticus, xxv. 5, where the ed. of i6ji 



Scene II] Notes 1 55 

has " of it own accord." In the present passage It will be noted 
that its is emphatic. 

1 6. That prays for peace. A petition for peace was included 
in the form of grace then in common use. Hanmer changes before 
to " after ; " and the Cambridge editors remark : " Hanmer's read- 
ing is recommended by the fact that in the old forms of grace used 
in many colleges, and, as we are informed, at the Inns of Court, 
the prayer for peace comes always after, and never before, meat. 
But as the mistake may easily have been made by S., or else delib- 
erately put into the mouth of the ist Gentleman, we have not 
altered the text." 

21. What, in metre? Knight makes this refer to the ancient 
metrical graces arranged to be said or sung. Schmidt thinks it 
may mean " in a play, on the stage," Proportion in the reply may 
be = " measure," as Warburton explains it, or simply = form, ar- 
rangement. 

24. Grace is grace, etc. " Grace is as immutably grace as his 
merry antagonist is a wicked villain. Difference in religion cannot 
make z. grace not to be grace, a prayer not to be holy ; as nothing 
can make a villain not to be a villain " (Johnson). 

27. There went but a pair of shears between us. We are cut 
out of the same piece of cloth. Malone quotes Marston, Malcon- 
tent, 1604: "There goes but a pair of shears betwixt an emperor 
and the son of a bagpiper ; only the dyeing, dressing, pressing, and 
glossing makes the difference." 

33. Had as lief. Good English then as now, grammar-mongers 
to the contrary notwithstanding. 

34. Piled. "A quibble between /z7i?a'= peeled, stripped of hair, 
bald (from the French disease), and piled as applied to velvet, 
three-piled \€[\t\. meaning the finest and costliest kind" (Dyce). 

39. Forget to drink after thee. That is, lest I catch the disease 
in that way. 

40. Done myself wrong. Put myself in the wrong. Cf. Temp. 
i. 2. 443, etc. 



156 



Notes [Act I 



46. I have purchased, etc. I have acquired or got, etc. Cf. A. 
Y. L. iii. 2. 360, A. W. iii. I. 70, etc. See also iv. 2. 109 below. 

The folio continues this speech to Lucio, but the context shows 
that it belongs to the ist Gentleman, to whom Pope transferred it. 

50. Dolours. For the play on dollars, cf. Temp. ii. I. 17 and 
Lear, ii. 4. 54. 

52. A French crown. A common expression for a bald head, 
being a kindred joke to that in 34 above. Cf. M. N. D. i. 2. 99 : 
" Some of your French crowns have no hair at all," etc. 

56. Thy bones are hollow. Steevens quotes T. of A. iv. 3. 152: 

" Consumptions sow 
In hollow bones of man." 

4 

83. The sweat. The plague, which was popularly known as " the 
sweating sickness." See p. 10 above. 

95. Houses in the suburbs. Houses of ill-fame were chiefly in 
the suburbs. Cf. ii. I. 64 below. 

112. Thomas. A name commonly applied to tapsters, probably 
for the sake of the alliteration. 

116. Enter Provost, etc. The folio begins a new scene, " Scsena 
Tertia," here, and is followed by some modern eds. ; but there is 
evidently no change of scene. Some would omit the name oi Juliet 
here ; but the preceding line indicates that she is on the stage, 
though it is evident from 147 below that she is not within hearing, 
nor near the speaker. The Cambridge editors suppose that she 
was "following at a distance behind, in her anxiety for the fate 
of her lover." At the end of the play she appears again without 
saying anything. 

122. The words of heaven, etc. Some editors adopt the con- 
jecture of Roberts, " The sword of heaven ; " but I accept Hen- 
ley's explanation of the original text : " Authority, being absolute 
in Angelo, is finely styled by Claudio the demi-god. To this uncon- 
trollable power the poet applies a passage from St. Paul to the 
Romans, ix. 15, 18, which he properly styles the words of heaven : 



Scene II] Notes 157 

'for he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have 
mercy,' etc.; and again: 'Therefore hath he mercy on whom he 
will have mercy,' etc." The folio (followed by the Cambridge 
ed.) has no stop after weight, but the reading in the text (due to 
Davenant) is generally adopted. 

127. Scope. Liberty, license ; as in i. 3. 35 below. 

129. Ravin down. Ravenously devour. Cf. Macb. ii. 4. 28 : — 

" Thriftless ambition, that will ravin up 
, Thine own life's means ! " 

and Cymb. i. 6. 49 : " ravining first the lamb." Note also the 
adjective in A. W. iii. 2. 120: "the ravin lion." 

Their proper bane = their own poison or destruction. Cf. Temp. 
iii. 3. 60: "Their proper selves," etc. 

130. A thirsty evil. In Sir William Davenant's Law against 
Lovers, which is founded on this play and Much Ado (see Ap- 
pendix), this is changed to " An evil thirst." 

134. Morality. The folios misprint " mortality ; " corrected by 
Rowe (after Davenant). Morality is used by S. nowhere else. 
Foppery = folly ; as in M. of V. ii. 5. 35 and Lear, i. 2. 128. 

145. Contract. Accented by S. on the first or second syllable, 
as suits the measure. Cf. Te??ip. iv. i. 84: "A contract of true 
love to celebrate," etc. 

146. Possession. Some make this word a quadrisyllable (see on 
i. I. 47 above), and the line an Alexandrine ; but it is clearly better 
to consider it an ordinary line of five feet, with extra syllables which 
are easily slurred in pronunciation. Cf. the preceding line and 148 
just below. 

148. Denunciation. Proclamation, declaration ; the only in- 
stance of the word in S. Minsheu, 1617, has "To denounce or 
declare," and Cooper, 1578, ^^ Denuntiare, — to shew or tell to 
another, to give knowledge, to signifie, to denounce," etc. 

150. Propagation. The reading of the later folios; the 1st has 
" propogation. " S. uses the word only here. Malone conjectures 



158 



Notes [Act I 



" prorogation," and White reads " preservation." A writer in the 
Edin. Mag., Nov. 1786, thinks that propagation may be from the 
Italian pagare, to pay, and = payment ; but this is improbable. It 
is more likely = continuing, keeping up. The dowry would appear 
to have been in some way dependent on her friends^ approval of 
her chosen husband, and the couple wanted to keep up their hold 
upon it until they had managed to gain the favour of those in charge 
of it. For this use oi propagate, cf. Chapman, Odyssey, xvi. : — 

"to try if we, 
Alone, may propagate to victory 
Our bold encounters ; " 

and again, Iliad, iv. : — 

" I doubt not but this night 
Even to the fleete to propagate the Greeks' unturned flight." 

158. The fault and glimpse. "The faulty glimpse: a fault aris- 
ing from the mind being dazzled by a novel authority of which the 
new governor has yet had only a glimpse, has yet taken only a 
hasty survey" (Malone). "The illusion of newness is conceived 
as a kind of half-hght " (Herford). 

165. Stagger. Waver, am perplexed. Cf. A. Y. L. iii. 3. 49. 

166. Awakes me. The " ethical dative." 

167. Like unscour^d armour. Steevens quotes T. and C. iii. 3. 

152: — 

" Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail, 
In monumental mockery." 

168. Nineteen zodiacs. Nineteen circuits of the sun, or years. 
Zodiac occurs again in T. A. ii. i. 7. Whalley would change 
nineteen to "fourteen," on account of i. 3. 21 ; just as there Theo- 
bald reads " nineteen " iox fourteen. Clarke remarks: " It is most 
characteristic that a young fellow like Claudio should carelessly 
mention somewhere about the period in question, while the staid 
Duke cites it exactly." It may, however, be one of the poet's little 
slips in numbers. Dr. Nicholson suggests that the law was made 



Scene III] Notes 1^9 

nineteen years ago, but that the Duke has reigned only fourteen 
years. 

169. Worn. Put in use ; suggested by the simile of the ar/«(7Mr. 

173. Tickle. Ticklish, precarious. Cf. 2 Hen. VI. i. i. 216: 
" on a tickle point ; " the only other instance in S. Ticklish oc- 
curs only in T. and C. iv. 5. 61 (where the folio has "tickling"). 

1 79. Receive her approbation. Enter upon her probation (cf. v. 
I. 72 below), or novitiate. Malone quotes The Merry Devil of 
Edmonton, 1608 : — 

" Madam, for a twelvemonth's approbation 
We mean to make the trial of our child." 

181. In my voice. In my name ; as in A. Y. I. ii. 4. 87 : " And 
in my voice most welcome shall you be." 

184. Prone. Variously explained by the editors: "prompt, 
ready " (Nares) ; " significant, expressive " (Malone) ; " humble " 
(Steevens and White) ; " deferential, gently submissive and sup- 
plicatory" (Clarke), etc. Schmidt ex-p\a.ms prone and speechless as 
" speechlessly prone, prone even without speaking, speaking fer- 
vently and eager without words ; " and Herford as " language of 
mute and eager entreaty." This may be the meaning. Davenant 
changes the word to " sweet ; " which, as Steevens remarks, shows, 
like other of his alterations, " that what appear difficulties to us 
were difficulties to him, who, living nearer the time of S., might be 
supposed to have understood his language more intimately." 

189. Grievous imposition. ^^'[Jnder gx'iQYOWs, penalties i?nposed" 
(Johnson). 

190. Who. Often = which, which some substitute here. 

192. Tick-tack. A sort of backgammon (Fr. tric-trac) ; men- 
tioned by S. only here. 

Scene III. — 2. Dribbling. Weak, ineffectual. Possibly the 
word should be dribbing, as dribber (see New Eng. Dict.^ was 
applied to an archer who dribs, or shoots badly. The noun is 



i6o Notes [Act I 

used by Ascham, and the verb by Golding, Churchyard, and Sid- 
ney. But dribble occurs in Golding in the same sense, 

3. Complete. Accented on the first syllable because coming 
before the noun. Cf. L. L. L. i. I. 137: "A maid of grace and 
complete majesty;" Rich. III. iv. 4. 189: "Than all the com- 
plete armour that thou wear'st," etc. See, on the other hand, 
T. G. of V. ii. 4. 73 : " He is complete in feature and in mind ; " 
K. John, ii. i. 433 : " Is the young Dauphin every way complete," 
etc. For many examples of this changeable accent of dissyllabic 
adjectives and participles, see Schmidt, p. 1413 fol. 

8. The life removed. A life of retirement. Cf. A. Y. L. iii. 2. 
360, W. T. V. 2. 116, etc. 

10. Bravery. Finery, showy dress; as in T. of S. iv. 3. 57 : 
" With scarfs and fans and double change of bravery." See also 
A. Y. L. ii. 7. 80, etc. Keeps = dwells ; as it is still used in some 
parts of this country. 

1 2. Stricture. Strictness ; the only instance of the word in S. 
Strictness, which Davenant substitutes, he does not use at all. 
Warburton would read "strict ure," ure being "an old word for 
use, practice." Steevens notes that it occurs in Promos and Cas- 
sandra : " The crafty man oft puts these wrongs in ure." 

20. Steeds. The folios have *' weedes ; " corrected by Theobald. 
In the next line, the folios have " slip " for sleep, which is Dave- 
nant's word. Cf. ii. 2. 90 below. Some would retain "weeds," 
which, according to Collier, is "a term applied to an ill-condi- 
tioned horse." The "Henry Irving" ed. has both "weeds" and 
" slip," quoting Mr. W. G. Stone, who says : " Shakespeare was 
careless in linking metaphors. I think it possible that he com- 
bined the idea of a well-bitted horse (literally equivalent to en- 
forcement of law), and the picture of a rank, noisome growth 
of weeds, suffered to spring up in a fair garden (literally equiva- 
lent to relaxation of law)." 

21. This fourteen. See on i. 2. 168 above. For this with a 
plural, cf. Much Ado, iii. 3. 134: "this seven year," etc. 



Scene IV] Notes l6l 

27. Becomes. Not in the folio ; inserted by Pope and adopted 
by the Cambridge ed. 

30. Quite athwart. Cf. I Hen. IV. i. I. 36 (the only other 
instance of the adverb in S.) : — 

" when all athwart there came 
A post from Wales loaden with heavy news." 

35. Sith. Since ; as in iv. I. 74 below. S. uses it not unfre- 
quently, and sithence twice. 

38. ' Permissive. The only instance of the word in S. 

42. And yet my nature never in the fight. And yet I myself 
never appearing in the fight. Pope changed yf^/e^ to "sight ; " but 
strike home and a^nbush favour its retention as carrying out the 
metaphor of a contest or struggle. 

43. To do 7}ie slander. The folios have "To do in slander." 
Hanmer reads " To do it slander ; " and there is not much choice 
between that and the reading in the text, which is Halliwell- 
Phillipps's. Steevens, in support of Hanmer's, cites I Hen. IV. iv. 
3. 8 : " Do me no slander, Douglas." The meaning of the whole 
passage is thus put by Clarke : " Angelo may, under cover of my 
name, enforce the law, while I take no part in the exertion that is 
opposed to my nature, and might bring me blame." Clarke reads 
"do it slander," it referring of course to nature ; and the sense is 
obviously the same whether we read it or me. 

47. Bear me. Bear or conduct myself. The folio omits me, 
which Capell supplied, and which is generally adopted. 

5 1 . Stands at a guard with. Is on his guard against ; or " stands 
cautiously on his defence " (Mason). Johnson makes it = " stands 
on terms of defiance." 

Scene IV. — 5. Votarists. For the feminine use, cf 0th. iv. 2. 
190. In T. of A. iv. 3. 27, Pope reads " Upon the sister votarists," 
etc. 

17. Stead. Help, be of service to ; as in yJ/. <y K i. 3. 7 : "May 

MEASURE FOR MEASURE — II 



1 62 Notes [Act I 

you stead me?" We still say "it stands me in good stead." Cf. 
I Hen. VI. iv. 6. 31. 

27. For that which. Malone conjectured "That for which;" 
but the preposition is often omitted in the relative clause when 
it has been used with the antecedent. Cf. ii. i. 15 and ii. 2. 119 
below. 

30. Make me not your story. Make me not your subject of 
mirth, or your jest. Cf. M. W. v. 5. 170: "I am your theme" 
(that is, the subject of your jests, your laughing-stock). The com- 
mentators have needlessly tinkered the passage. 

32, The lapwing. The bird builds its nest on the ground, and 
is said to divert attention from it by running or flying to a dis- 
tance and attracting the sportsman thither by fluttering and crying. 
Cf. C. of E. iv. 2. 27: 

"Far from her nest the lapwing cries away ; 
My heart prays for him, though my tongue do curse." 

35. Renouncement. Renunciation of the world as a nun. S. 
uses the word only here, renuticiation not at all. 

39. Fewness and truth. Briefly and truly. Cf. in few = in few 
words, in Hen. V. i. 2. 245, etc. See also iii. i. 229 below, where 
it is = in short. 

40. Lover. For the feminine use, cf. A. Y. L. iii. 4. 46, A. and 
C. iv. 14. loi, and Cymb. v. 5. 172. The poet's Lover'' s Complaint 
is the lament of a deserted maiden. Blakeway remarks that the 
word was used in this feminine sense long after the time of S., as 
by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu in her Letters. 

42. Seedness. Seeding, sowing ; a word not found elsewhere. 

43. Foison. Plenty, harvest ; as in 7V;7z/. ii. i. 163 : "allfoison, 
all abundance ; " Id. iv. i. no: "Earth's increase, foison plenty," 
etc. 

44. Tilth. Tillage; as in Temp. ii. I. 152, and probably also 
in iv. I. 75 below, where the folio has "tithe." For the figure, cf. 
Sonn. 3. 5. 



Scene I] Notes 163 

51. Bore 7n any gentlemen, etc. To bear in hand was, a common 
phrase for " keep in expectation, flatter with false hopes." Cf. 
Much Ado, iv. i. 305, T. of S. iv. 2. 3, Ham. ii. 2. 67, etc. 

54. Givings-out. The folio has " giving-out ; " corrected by 
Rowe. 

56. With full line. "With the full extent, with the whole length. 

59. The wanton stings, etc. For motions = impulses, cf. 0th. i. 
3. 333 : " our raging motions, our carnal stings." 

60. Rebate. Make dull ; used by S. nowhere else. 

62. To give fear to use. " To intimidate use, that is, practices 
long countenanced by custom " (Johnson). Schmidt makes use and 
liberty — " the practice of liberty, licentious practice." Herford 
explains it as " license grown customary," 

69. Grace. Either "power of gaining favour" (Johnson), or 
" good fortune, happiness " (Schmidt) ; as in M. N. D. ii. 2. 89 : 
" The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace," etc. 

70. My pith of business. The pith of my business. 

72. Censur'd. Judged, passed sentence upon; as in ii. i. 15, 
29 below, Cf. Lear, v, 3. 3: "That are to censure them," etc. 

83. Would owe them. Would have them. For oive = have, 
possess, cf. ii. 4. 123 below. 

86. The mother. The abbess, or prioress, 

88. Soon at night. This very night. See 2 Hen. IV. v. 5. 96, 
R. and J. ii. 5. 78, etc. 

89. Success. The issue, or result ; as often. 



ACT II 



Scene I. — 2. Fear. Affright ; as in T. of S. \. 2. 211 : " Tush, 
tush ! fear boys with bugs," etc. 

6. Fall. Generally explained as transitive, and perhaps cor- 
rectly ; as in A. Y. L. iii. 5.5: — 



164 Notes [Act II 

" The common executioner, 
Whose heart the accustom'd sight of death makes hard 
Falls not the axe," etc. 

It may, however, be intransitive here. *' Escalus desires that An- 
gelo and he should act as keen instruments and cut a little, rather 
than fall as heavy weights on an offender and crush him to death " 
(J. Hunter). 

8. Know. Reflect, consider. 

12. Blood. Animal passion; as in ii. 4. 15, 178, and v. 1.472 
below. Cf. also Mtich Ado, ii. i. 187, ii. 3. 170, iv. i. 60, 
etc. 

15. Which. In which. See on i, 4. 27 above. 

18. / not deny. The transposition of not is common. Cf. 
Temp. ii. i. 121, v. i. 38, 113, 303, etc. 

22. What knows the law, etc. The folio reads " What knowes 
the Lawes," and some modern eds. give " What know the laws." 
Malone paraphrases the passage thus : *' How can the administra- 
tors of the laws take cognizance of what I have just mentioned? 
How can they know whether the jurymen, who decide on the life 
or death of thieves, be themselves as criminal as those whom they 
try?" Pass on is of course used in the same sense as in 19 just 
above. 

23. Pregnant. Full of probability, evident. Cf. Cy;;z(5. iv. 2. 325, 
0th. ii. I. 239, etc. 

28. For I have had. Because I have had, on the ground that I 
have had. The modern use of for = because (with a comma before 
for) would be nonsensical here. 

29. Censure. Judge, sentence. See on i. 4. 72 above. 

30. Let mine own judgment, etc. Let the sentence I pronounce 
on him be passed against me. 

31. And nothing come in partial. And no partiality be urged 
or allowed. 

39. Som,e run from brakes of vice, and answer none. A most 
perplexing passage. The folio reads : " Some run from brakes of 



Scene I] Notes 1 65 

Ice, and answere none." Rowe gave " through brakes of vice ; " 
and Malone, followed by most of the more recent editors, adopted 
the vice. This seems on the whole the simplest and best emenda- 
tion, where none is quite satisfactory. Brakes of vice, if it be what 
S. wrote, must mean thickets of vice, with perhaps the double idea 
of a complication of vices — many vices, as opposed to the single 
fault of the next line — and that of thorny entanglements out of 
which escape would seem difficult. Steevens at first was inclined 
to read " breaks of ice," and explain the passage " some run away 
from danger, and stay to answer none of their faults ; " but after- 
wards adopted brakes of vice, taking brakes to mean " engines of 
torture," as in Holinshed and other writers of the time. See also 
Dr. Ingleby's Shakes. Hermeneutics, p. 145. In the old printing 
offices the " copy " was often read to the compositor, who might 
easily mistake " of vice " for " of ice." 

43. Common hotises. Brothels. Cf. the adjective in Much Ado, 
iv. I. 66, Rich. II. v. 3. 17, etc. See also commoner in A. W. v. 3. 
194 and 0th. iv. 2. 73. 

47. The poor duke^s constable. Cf. Much Ado, iii. 5. 22 (Dog- 
berry's speech) : " the poor duke's officers." 

54. Precise villains. He means of course that they are precisely 
or literally villains ; but Clarke thinks that the word gives the im- 
pression of "strict, severely moral," as in i. 3. 50 above: "Lord 
Angelo is precise." 

55. Profanation. k.\AMrA&[ iox profession. S. does not use the 
word elsewhere ; and profaneness only in W. T. iii. 2. 155 ; pro- 
fanely only in Ham. iii. 2. 34 ; profaner only in R. and J. i. i. 89 ; 
d>Xi6. profanity not at all. 

57. This co7nes off well. Johnson makes this = "this is nimbly 
spoken, this is volubly uttered ; " but it seems rather to mean 
(ironically, of course) this is well told. Cf. T. of A. i. i. 29: 
" this comes off well and excellent " (= this is well done). 

60. Out at elbow. "A hit at the constable's threadbare coat, 
and at his being startled and put out by Angelo's peremptory 



t66 Notes [Act n 

repetition of his name" (Clarke). Cf. A. Y. L. iv. i. 76: "Very 
^ood orators, when they are out, they will spit," etc. 

62. Parcel-bawd. Part bawd. Cf. parcel-gilt in 2 Hen. IV. ii. 
I. 94. 

65. Hot-house. Bagnio, or bathing-house ; used by S. only here 
in any sense. 

68. Detest. Mrs. Quickly makes the same blunder in M. W. i. 

4. 160: '*but, I detest, an honest maid as ever broke bread." 

91. Stewed prunes. A favourite dish in such houses. Ci. M. W. 
i. I. 296, I Hen. IV. iii. 3. 128, and 2 Hen. IV. ii. 4. 159. 

95. China dishes. These, though not rare in the poet's day, 
were so costly that it was superfluous to say that they would not 
be found in common use in a house like Mistress Overdone's. 

108. If you be remembered. If you recollect. Cf. A. Y. L. ii. 

5, 131, T.ofS. iv. 3. 96, etc. 

114. Wot. Know ; used only in the present tense and the par- 
ticiple wotting^ for which see W. T. iii. 2. 77. 

120. Come 7ne. The me is probably the expletive, or " dativus 
ethicus," as in i. 2. 166 above and iv. 2. 6 below. 

1 29. All-hallownd eve. The eve of Hallowmas. 

131. A lower chair. That is, an easy-chair. Cf. "chairs of 
ease "in T. of A. v. 4. 11, and "drooping chair" in i Hen. VI. 

iv. 5- 5- 

The Bunch of Grapes. It was the custom in the time of S., and 
long after, to give names to particular rooms in taverns. Cf. 
I Hen. IV. ii. 4. 30 : " Score a pint of bastard in the Half-moon." 
The custom prevailed as recently as the time of Goldsmith, who 
makes his pseudo-barmaid, in She Stoops to Conquer, say : " Attend 
the Lion there ; pipes and tobacco for the Angel ; the Lamb has 
been outrageous this half-hour." At the Shakspere Hotel in Strat- 
ford, the chambers, instead of being numbered, are named after the 
poet's plays. 

134. An open room and good for winter. The confusion of ideas 
is sufficiently characteristic of the speaker, but some of the critics 



Scene I] Notes 1 67 

have tried to make the passage logical. Talbot makes the pre- 
posterous suggestion that open is " perhaps from the same root as 
oven, a warm room." 

138. Russia. Metrically a trisyllable. Proper names in -ia are 
often thus lengthened. 

162. Supposed. He means ^i?/oji?fl', of course. 

169. An it like you. If it please you, Cf. Hen. V. iii. prol. 32: 
" The offer likes not," etc. 

179. Justice or Iniquity? "That is, the constable or the fool. 
Escalus calls the latter Iniquity in allusion to the old Vice, a familiar 
character in the ancient moralities and dumb-shows " (Ritson). Cf. 
I Hen. IV. ii. 4. 499 : " that reverend vice, that grey iniquity ; " 
Rich. III. iii. I. 82: "like the formal Vice, Iniquity," etc. 

185. Hannibal. " Mistaken by the constable for cannibal" 
(Johnson). Cf. 2 Hen. IV. ii. 4. 180 (Pistol's speech): "Com- 
pare with Caesars and with Cannibals" (Hannibals). 

198. Thou art to continue. Elbow evidently takes the continue 
of Escalus to refer to some penalty or other. 

212. Draw you. '^ Draw has here a cluster of senses. As it 
refers to the tapster, it signifies to drain, to empty ; as it is related 
to hang, it means to be conveyed to execution on a hurdle. In Froth's 
answer, it is the same as to bring along by some motive or power'''' 
(Johnson). For the play upon drazving and hanging, cf. Much 
Ado, iii. 2. 22 and K. John, ii. i. 504. 

217. Drawn in. That is, taken in, swindled. 

221. Pompey. As he is called Thomas in i. 2. 112, Clarke sug- 
gests that Pompey was a name given him by waggish customers and 
adopted by himself ; but it is quite as likely that the Thomas was 
the nickname. See on i. 2. 112 above. 

224. The greatest thing about you. Probably an allusion to the 
enormous breeches then worn. 

238. Spay. Castrate. The folios have " splay," which some 
take to be an old form of the word. It is the only instance of 
either in S, 



1 68 Notes [Act II 

250. Day. The folios have " bay ; " corrected by Pope. Some 
retain " bay" because it was an architectural term for a division of 
a building ; but, as White asks, " threepence a bay for how long ? " 
After = at the rate of. 

257. Shrewd. Mischievous, evil ; the original sense and the 
most common one in S. 

261. Bui I shall follow it, etc. Staunton was the first to mark 
this as Aside. 

263. fade. A common term for a worthless nag. 

269. Your readiness. The folios have " the " for your (doubt- 
less from confounding jj/^ zndy^ in the MS.) ; corrected by Pope. 

Though Elbow says sevejt year and Escalus seven years, it must 
not be supposed that the former is a vulgarism. Cf. Temp. i. 2. 53 : 
" Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year since," etc. 

285. Eleven, sir. Harrison, in his Description of England (p. 166 
of Furnivall's ed.), says: "With vs the nobilitie, gentrie, and stu- 
dents, doo ordinarilie go to dinner at eleuen before noone, and to 
supper at fiue, or betweene fiue and six at afternoone. The mer- 
chants dine and sup seldome before twelue at noone, and six at 
night especiallie in London. The husbandmen dine also at high 
noone as they call it, and sup at seuen or eight : but out of the 
tearme in our vniuersities the scholers dine at ten." 

Scene II, — 4. He hath but as offended, etc. " He hath only, as 
it were, offended in a dream" (Dyce). White reads "offended 
but as ; " but the transposition, if we regard it as such, is not more 
peculiar than others in Elizabethan English. 

15. Groaning. Cf. Rich. II. v. 2. 102: — 

" Hadst thou groan'd for him 
As I have done, thou wouldst be more pitiful." 

See also the ViOViXs. groan in A. VV. i. 3. 153, iv. 5. 12, Rich. III. iv. 
4. 303, etc. 

17. More fitter. Double comparatives and superlatives are fre- 
quent in S., but Pope reads "more fitting." 



Scene II] Notes 169 

19. Desires. The ellipsis of the relative is common, 
25. Save your honour ! The Cambridge ed. has " God save." 
Pope filled out the measure by changing y^r V to "for it." 
28. Please. If it please. The folio prints " 'Please." 
32. For which I must not plead, etc. Malone paraphrases the 
passage thus: "for which I must not plead, but that there is a 
conflict in my breast betwixt my affection for my brother, which 
induces me to plead for him, and my regard to virtue, which for- 
bids me to intercede for one guilty of such a crime ; and I find the 
former more powerful than the latter." 

35. Let it be his fault, etc. " Let his fault be condemned, or 
extirpated, but let not my brother himself suffer " (Malone). 

40. Fine the fatilts. Here fine evidently has the general sense 
of punish, as in iii. i. 114 below: "perdurably fin'd." So the 
noun here = punishment in general ; as in K. John, v. 4. 37 : — 

" Paying the fine of rated treachery 
Even with a treacherous fine of all your lives." 

Stands in record. Is set down in the statute. S. accents the 
noun record on either syllable, as suits the measure. Cf. Sonn. 
55. 8 with 123. II, etc. 

41. Severe. Accented on the first syllable because coming before 
the noun ; as in I Hen. VI. v. 4. 114: " It shall be with such strict 
and severe covenants." On the other hand, see A. Y. L. ii. 7. 155 : 
" With eyes severe and beard of formal cut," etc. See also on i. 3. 
3 above. 

45. You are too cold. "It is noteworthy that Lucio twice re- 
proaches Isabella with coldness ; and this is the impression that 
more than one critic has received and given of her character. But 
the restraint that sways her throughout this scene is just the power- 
ful one which deceives imperfectly judging lookers-on into believ- 
ing a woman of reticence to be a woman wanting in warmth. See 
how her upright soul — clear in virtuous perception, honest in right- 
eous avowal — allows Vsxe Justice of the case against her brother. 



lyo Notes [Act ii 

though pleading against its severity : * O just but severe law ! ' 
Then, again, consider the natural timidity and reluctance with 
which a young girl — a modest, pure girl, a girl who has volun- 
tarily commenced her novitiate for the cloistered life of a nun — 
would enter upon such a subject as she has undertaken to plead 
for ; a subject hard even to speak of, most hard to advocate '' 
(Clarke) . 

53. But might you, etc. The Cambridge ed. puts a period at the 
end of the sentence. Mr. Marshall remarks : " If the line is to be 
spoken as printed in the text it must be spoken as a question, or it 
would not be intelligible to the audience. I cannot see any reason 
why the author should not have written ' But yoti might do 't,' if he 
did not mean Isabella to ask a question. The fact that this sen- 
tence begins, like that above in line 51, with j??/^ makes it probable 
that, like that also, it is intended to be interrogative." 

54. Remorse. Pity; as very often. Cf. v. i. 100 below. 

58. Back again. The ist folio omits back, which the 2d sup- 
plies. Well believe this = be thoroughly assured of this. The 
folio has a comma after Well, and some prefer that pointing. 

59. Longs. Belongs ; but not a contraction of that word, as 
often printed. 

Mrs. Jameson remarks here : " It is a curious coincidence that 
Isabella, exhorting Angelo to mercy, avails herself of precisely the 
same arguments and insists on the self-same topics which Portia 
addresses to Shylock in her celebrated speech ; but how beauti- 
fully and how truly is the distinction marked ! how like, and yet 
how unlike ! Portia's eulogy on mercy is a piece of heavenly 
rhetoric ; it falls on the ear with a solemn measured harmony ; it 
is the voice of a descended angel addressing an inferior nature : 
if not premeditated, it is at least part of a preconcerted scheme ; 
while Isabella's pleadings are poured from the abundance of her 
heart in broken sentences, and with the artless vehemence of one 
who feels that life and death hang upon her appeal." 

76. ToJ>. Cf. Tem^. iii. i. 38: "the top of admiration," etc. 



Scene 11] Notes 171 

It has been pointed out that Dante uses the same expression, 
" Cima di giudicio." 

79. Like man nezv made. " In familiar speech, * You would be 
quite another man ' " (Johnson). Malone explained it thus : "You 
will then appear as tender-hearted and merciful as the first man 
was in his days of innocence, immediately after his creation ; " and 
Holt White thought it meant : " And you, Angelo, will breathe 
new life into Claudio, as the Creator animated Adam, by breathing 
into his nostrils the breath of life." Mr. Marshall asks : " May not 
new 77iade here have the scriptural sense of ' regenerated ' ? Shake- 
speare is in a decidedly theological vein of mind in this speech, and 
it is natural, having just spoken of the effect of the Redemption, he 
should have in his mind ' regeneration,' such as our Lord explained 
to Nicodemus (^John, iii. 3-8)." 

85. Of season. When it is in season. Steevens compares M. W. 
iii. 3. 159: "I warrant you, buck ; and of the season too, it shall 
appear." 

90. The law hath not been dead, etc. As Holt White remarks, 
"Dormiunt aliquando leges, moriuntur nunquam" is a maxim in 
law. 

92. If the first, etc. The folio reading, retained by the Cambridge 
editors and others, but sundry changes have been made. 

Edict is accented by S. on either syllable, according to the 
measure. 

95. Looks in a glass. Probably alluding to the magic mirrors 
used by conjurers and fortune-tellers. Cf. Macb. iv. i. 119. Mr. 
Symons ("Henry Irving" ed.) says: "An allusion to the beryl- 
stone, in which it was supposed that the future might be seen, and 
the absent brought before the eyes. This picturesque superstition 
has been often utilized in romances and poems ; the latest and 
greatest instance being Rossetti's ballad, ' Rose Mary.' " 

98. Successive. Here accented on the first syllable. Cf. suc- 
cessors in Hen. VIII. i. i. 60. 

99. Ere. The folio has " here ; " corrected by Hanmer. 



172 Notes [Act 11 

107. And he that suffers. That is, the first that suffers. 

109. Like a giant. Alluding to the savage conduct of giants in 
ancient romances (Steevens). 

112. Pelting, Paltry ; as in M. N. D.\\. I. 91 : " every pelting 
river," etc. 

116. Split'' St. The folio has "splits," a euphonic contraction 
found elsewhere in second persons ending in -test. See on iii, i. 20 
below. 

119. Most assur' d. For the ellipsis of the of, cf. i. 4. 27 and ii. 
I. 15 above. 

120. Glassy essence. " That essential nature of man which is like 
glass from its faculty to reflect the image of others in its own, and 
from its fragility, its liability to injury or destruction" (Clarke). 

122. With our spleens. If they had our human spleens, they 
v^^ould laugh away their immortal natures, and become mortal like 
us. The spleen was thought to be the seat of sudden and uncon- 
trollable fits of mirth, as of melancholy or anger. 

126. We cannot weigh our brother, etc. " We mortals, proud 
and foolish, cannot prevail on our passions to weigh or compare 
our brother, a being of like nature and like frailty, with ourself. 
We have different names and different judgments for the same 
faults committed by persons of different condition" (Johnson). 

132. Avis'' d. Advised, or aware. Cf. M. W. i. i. 169: "Be 
avised, sir" (that is, listen to reason) ; and Id. i. 4. 106: "Are 
you avised o' that ? " The expression is probably an indirect com- 
pliment to Isabella, like the preceding speeches of Lucio aside to 
her. It was a common phrase of the time, and = you may be sure 
of that. 

136. That skins the vice, etc. Steevens compares Ham. iii. 4. 
147 : " It will but skin and film the ulcerous place." S. uses the 
verb skin only in these two passages. 

142. My sense breeds, etc. " My sense breeds with her sense, 
that is, new thoughts are stirring in my mind, new conceptions 
are hatched in my imagination" (Johnson). Douce explains it 



Scene II] Notes 173 

thus : " Her arguments are enforced with so much good sense as 
to increase that stock of sense which I akeady possess." 

149. Fond. The word often means fooHsh (cf. v. i. 105 below), 
and here is = "fooHshly overprized" (Clarke). Shekels is printed 
" sickles " in the folios, as in some of the ancient versions of the 
Bible. 

153. Preserved. " That is, preserved from the corruption of the 
world" (Warburton). The good bishop adds that "the metaphor 
is taken from fruits preserved in sugar ; " but, as Boswell says, 
"surely our author had *no such stuff in his thoughts,'" The 
objection to the interpretation, however, is not in the fact that the 
figure would be a common and culinary one. S. is fond of using 
season metaphorically, suggested by the use of brine to preserve 
meat ; as in A. W.\. i. 55, T. N. i. i. 30, R. and J. ii. 3. 72, etc. 

154. Dedicate. For the form, cf. 2 Hen. VI. v. 2. 37 : " He that 
is truly dedicate to war," etc. 

159. Where prayers cross. Johnson complained that he could not 
understand this; but the meaning seems to be that the prayer or 
desire of his heart (to seduce Isabella) crosses or conflicts with 
hers that his honour (the word suggests that sense to his mind) 
may be safe. This is evident from what he says in reply to her 
repetition of Save your honour! just below. Henley explains 
the passage thus : " The petition, ' Lead us not into temptation,' 
is here considered as crossing or intercepting the onward way in 
which Angelo was going ; this appointment of his for the morrow's 
meeting being a premeditated exposure of himself to temptation, 
which it was the general object of prayer to thwart." 

164. It is I, etc. " I am not corrupted by her, but my own 
heart, which excites foul desires under the same benign influences 
that exalt her purity, as the carrion grows putrid by those beams 
which increase the fragrance of the violet " (Johnson). With vir- 
tuous season = with the sweet influences of summer and sunshine. 

171. Evils. Privies; as in Heft. VIII. ii. i. 67: "Nor build 
their evils on the graves of great men." Henley compares 2 Kings, 



1 74 Notes _ [Act II 

X. 27, and adds : " The desecration of edifices devoted to religion, 
by converting them to the most abject purposes of nature, was an 
Eastern method of expressing contempt." 

185. Ever. The later folios have " Even." Pope fills out the 
measure by reading " Even till this very now," which S. could 
never have written. 

186. Fond. Foolishly doting. When the word in S. expresses 
fondness in the modern sense, it generally carries the idea of folly 
(see on 149 above) with it. Cf. i. 3. 23 above. 

Scene III. — 4. Spirits . . . in the prison. There is an allu- 
sion to I Peter, iii. 19. 

10. Of mine. He calls her so because she had been placed in 
his care. Cf. ii. 2. 23 fol. above. 

11. Flames. The folios have "flawes" or "flaws;" but it is 
probably a misprint for flames, which Davenant substituted. Cf. 
Ham. iii. 4. 83 : — 

" To flaming youth let virtue be as wax, 
And melt in her own fire." 

26. Offenceful. The ist folio misprints " offence full." S, has 
the word only here ; and offenceless only in 0th. ii. 3. 295. 

30. Lest. The reading of the 4th folio ; the earlier folios have 
" least," which some retain. 

31. As that. For the reason that, because that. Tyrwhitt puts 
it thus : " lest you repent (not so much of your fault, as it is an 
evil) as that, etc." 

33. Spare heaven. " That is, spare to offend heaven " (Malone). 
Pope reads " seek heaven," and other changes have been proposed. 
36. There rest. " Keep yourself in this temper " (Johnson). 

39. Grace go with you! Dyce gives these words to Juliet (Rit- 
son's conjecture). 

40. Law. The folios have " loue ; " corrected by Hanmer. 
"Neither her love nor its consequences had any effect upon her 
life ; but the law in question, declaring, as we learn in the old 



Scene III] Notes 175 

tale on which the play is founded, that the man who broke it 
* should lose his head, and the woman offender should ever after 
be infamously noted,' thus did respite her * a life whose very com- 
fort ' was ' a dying horror ' " (White). Some editors retain " love," 
and Toilet explains the passage thus with that reading : " O love, 
that is injurious in expediting Claudio's death, and that respites 
me a life which is a burden to me worse than death ! " 

Scene IV. — i. On the passage, cf. Ham. iii. 3. 38 fol. 

2. Several. Separate, different ; as in Temp. iii. i. 42, M. W. 
iii. 5. fio, etc. 

3. Invention. Imagination, or " mental activity in general " 
(Schmidt). Cf. Much Ado, iv. i. 196, v. i. 232, 282, etc. 

4. Anchors on Isabel. For the figure, cf. Cymb. v. 5. 393 : 
" Posthumus anchors upon Imogen." 

9. Seared. Collier says that Lord EUesmere's copy of the ist 
folio has sear'd, not " fear'd," which is the reading of other copies. 
The misprint seems to have been corrected while the book was 
being printed, and there are other instances of the kind. 

11. With boot. Giving something to boot; as in Lear, v. 3. 
301, etc. 

12. For vain. Idly, to no purpose. 

13. Case. Covering, outward garb. Cf. L. C. Il6 : "Accom- 
plish'd in himself, not in his case." 

16. Good angel. It has been suggested that Angelo here plays 
upon his own name. The meaning, of course, is : Though we may 
write good angel on the devil's horn, it is not his proper crest. As 
the crest might properly include the horn, Johnson would read : 
" 'T is yet the devil's crest." 

27. The general. The multitude, the populace. Cf. Ham. ii. 2. 
457 : " caviare to the general." See alsoy. C. ii. i. 12. Some of 
the editors have been in doubt whether general or subject is the 
noun here. On the passage, see p. 10 above. 

28. Fondness. See on ii. 2. 186 above. 



176 



Notes [Act II 



43. That hath from nattire stolen, etc. That is, that hath 
deprived of life, or murdered. 

45. Saucy sweetness. Impudent self-indulgence. Cf. sweet un- 
cleanness just below. 

47. Falsely to take away, etc. " Falsely is the same with dis- 
honestly, illegally ; so false in the next line but one is illegal, ille- 
gitimate^^ (Johnson). 

48. Restrained means. Forbidden instruments. 

56. Give my body. That is, to death. 

57. CompelVd. Accented on the first syllable because preceding 
the noun. See on i. 3. 3 above. Malone paraphrases the passage 
thus : " Actions to which we are compelled, however mimerotis, 
are not imputed to us by heaven as crimes. If you cannot save 
your brother but by the loss of your chastity, it is not a voluntary 
but compelled sin, for which you cannot be accountable ; " or, 
more simply, these compelled sins may be counted as sins, but are 
not to be accounted for as such. 

58. Plow say you? What do you say? Cf. v. i. 273 below : 
" Say you ? " 

73. Nothing of your answer. Nothing that you must answer 
for. 

75. Craftily. The folios have " crafty ; " corrected by Rowe 
(after Davenant). 

76. Me. Omitted in the ist folio, but supplied in the 2d. 

79. Tax. Accuse, reproach. Cf. A. Y. L. ii. 7. 71, 86, etc. 
These black masks. That is, the masks now generally worn. Cf. 

R. and J. i. i. 236 : — 

" These happy masks that kiss fair ladies' brows, 
Being black, put us in mind they hide the fair." 

These is perhaps used as referring to the ladies in the audience. 

80. Enshield. Enshielded, enclosed. The -ed is often omitted 
after d and t. 

82. Received. Taken, understood. Cf. T.N. iii. I. 131 : "one 
of your receiving" (that is, understanding). 



Scene III] Notes 177 

86. Pain. Penalty, punishment; as in the phrase " on pain of 
death," etc. 

89. As I subscribe not that, etc. Though I admit not that nor 
any other except for the sake of argument. The as is what Dr. 
Ingleby (-S". the Man and the Book, Part I. p. 145) aptly calls ^^ the 
conjunction of reminder, being employed by S. and his contem- 
poraries to introduce a subsidiary statement, qualifying, or even 
contradicting, what goes before, which the person addressed is re- 
quired to take for granted." Cf. A. and C. ii. 2. 52, etc. 

Schmidt makes in the loss of question = " as no better arguments 
present themselves to my mind, to make the point clear." Herford 
explains it as = " in the embarrassment of discussion ; simply as a 
means of making my point clear." White points the passage 

thus : — 

"Admit no other way to save his life 
(As I subscribe not that nor any other) 
But — in the loss of question >— that you," etc. 

He thinks that "the but must not be shut out of the direct con- 
struction." Of course it is grammatically required in that construc- 
tion ; but the irregularity with my pointing is not unlike what we 
often find in S. when the construction is broken by a parenthesis. 

94. All-holding, The folios have " all-building," which Schmidt 
explains as " being the ground and foundation of all ; " but, as 
Herford remarks, "the context concerns the restrictive, not the 
creative, function of law." Johnson reads " all-binding," which is 
equally plausible. 

95. Mean. S. often uses the singular, though oftener the plural, 
in this sense. 

103. That longittg I 've been, etc. The folio reads " That long- 
ing haue bin sicke for," etc. The emendation in the text is Rowe's. 
Delius considers the folio reading an instance of the ellipsis of the 
nominative, which is barely possible. 

III. Ignomy. "Ignominy" (the reading of the later folios). 
Ignomy is found in the folio in i Hen. IV. v. 4. 100 and T, and C. 

MEASURE FOR MEASURE — 12 



178 Notes [Act II 

V. 10. 23- In the present passage ignominy perhaps suits the meas- 
ure better, though the line would be a lame one even then. 

Malone remarks that Davenant's alteration of the passage may 
prove a reasonably good comment on it : — 

" Ignoble ransom no proportion bears 
To pardon freely given." 

122. If not a fedary, etc. "If he has not one associate in his 
crime, if no other person own and follow the same criminal 
courses which you are now pursuing" (Malone). Y ox fedary ■= 
accomplice, see Cynib. iii. 2. 21 ; the only other instance of the 
word in S. The word ("feodary" in the later folios) signifies 
originally a feudal vassal, and Clarke thinks that it here combines 
that sense with the other, meaning " one who holds by com- 
mon tenure, and one of the human fraternity." He paraphrases 
the passage thus : " Unless we are all frail, let my brother die ; if 
he do not, as one of his human brethren, holding by their common 
tenure (but simply as he himself alone), possess and succeed to the 
inheritance of that weakness which you allow is yours as well as all 
men's." On the whole, this is to be preferred to Malone's exegesis. 
It has been put more concisely thus : " Otherwise, let my brother 
die, if instead of being a mere vassal like other men he alone has 
frailty for his inheritance." Some change thy to "this." Herford, 
who adopts this reading, says : " Isabel cannot possibly use to 
Angelo the familiar thou." 

125. As the glasses, etc. The simile was proverbial. Cf. Hazlitt, 
English Proverbs : " Glasses and lasses are brittle ware." 

127. Afen their creation mar, etc. Men spoil women by taking 
advantage of their weakness. Steevens accepts an explanation 
given in the Edin. Rev, Nov. 1786: "men debase their nature by 
taking advantage of such weak pitiful creatures." Clarke combines 
the two interpretations : " men impair their own natures and injure 
women by taking advantage of them. " Schmidt says : " men spoil 
women by that which these learn from them." He gives as parallel 



Scene III] Notes 179 

uses of profit by (= be instructed by, learn from) A. Y. L. iv. 3. 84 
and T. and C. v. I. 16; but in both the expression may as well 
have its ordinary meaning. 

130. Credulous to false prints. That is, take any impression. 
Malone compares T. N. ii. 2. 31 : — 

"How easy is it for the proper false 
In women's waxen hearts to set their forms ! " 

139. I have no tongue but one, etc. "Isabella answers to his cir- 
cumlocutory courtship that she has but one tongue^ she does not 
understand this new phrase, and desires him to talk his former 
language, that is, to talk as he talked before " (Johnson). Clarke 
remarks : " The poet's conduct of this difficult scene is a marvel of 
skill, and proves his insight into womanly nature to be little short 
of miraculous." 

145. / know your virtue, etc. " I know your virtue assumes an 
air of licentiousness which is not natural to you, on purpose to try 
me " {Edin. Rev. Nov. 1 786) ; or " in order to draw me on to con- 
fess the like." 

150. Seeming, seeming! "Hypocrisy, hypocrisy; counterfeit 
virtue" (Johnson). Cf. Much Ado, iv. i. 57 and 0th. iii. 3. 209. 

156. My vouch against you. My assertion to the contrary, my 
denial of your charge. 

159. Smell of calumny. Steevens sees here " a metaphor from a 
lamp or candle extinguished in its own grease ! " 

160. Race. Natural disposition ; as in Temp. i. 2. 358 : — 

"thy vile race, 
Though thou didst learn, had that in 't which good natures 
Could not abide to be with." 

Heath misinterprets the passage thus : " And now I give my senses 
the rein in the race they are now actually running." 

162. Prolixious blushes. "What Milton [P. L. iv. 31 1] has 
called 'sweet, reluctant, amorous delay'" (Steevens). S. has 
prolixious only here. 



1 80 Notes [Act III 

165. Die the death. Elsewhere used of a judicial sentence. See 
M. N. D.'\. I. 65, C. of E. i. 147, etc.; and cf. Matthew, xv. 4. 
168. Affection. Impulse, feeling. Cf. iii. i. 37 below. 

1 78. Prompture. Prompting, incitement ; used by S. only here. 
For blood, cf. ii. i. 12 above. 

1 79. Mind of honour. Honourable mind. Cf. " mind of love " 
= loving mind, in M. of V. ii. 8. 42. 



ACT III 



Scene I. — 5. Be absolute for death. Make up your mind 
fully for death. 

10. That dost, etc. The reading of the folios, changed by Han- 
mer to " That do." Even if that refers to influences, the irregularity 
would be not unlike many others in S. ; but possibly Porson was 
right in making breath the antecedent. White says that to " make 
the breath hourly afflict its habitation " is " an absurd result." An 
asthmatic might not admit this, but all that the duke means is that 
life itself may become a burden from being at the mercy of the 
skyey influences. Indeed, is not this the meaning with either con- 
struction ? In the one case the breath is an affliction because ser- 
vile to the skyey influences ; in the other, it is servile to these 
influences that afflict it. 

White suggests that we should read influence both here and in 
W. T. i. 2. 426, as the rhythm seems to require ; " for influence 
was then a word without a plural, and was used, especially when 
applied to the heavenly bodies (to which service it was then almost 
set apart) in its radical sense of in-flowing, and then in the singu- 
lar form, even when all those bodies are spoken of." Cf. Milton, 
P. Z. viii. 512, X. 663, Comus, 330, 335, etc. Bacon, however, has 
the plural in Essay 9 : " the evill Influences of the Starrs." See 
2\%o Job, xxxviii. 31. 

Keefst. Dwellest ; as in i. 3. 10 above. 



Scene I] Notes l8l 

II. Death'' s fool. In the ancient "dumb-shows" Death and the 
Fool were common characters. The latter is made to employ all 
his tricks in trying to escape from the former, but finally runs into 
his clutches. According to a manuscript note by John Stow in 
Leland's Itinerary, there was a Dance of Death in Holy Trinity 
Church at Stratford. Cf. the allusion in Rich. II. iii. 2. 162, and 
see cut on p. 143 above. 

15. Are nurs'dby baseness. "Whatever grandeur can display or 
luxury enjoy is procured by baseness, by offices of which the mind 
shrinks from the contemplation. All the delicacies of the table 
may*be traced back to the shambles and the dunghill, all magnifi- 
cence of building was hewn from the quarry, and all the pomp of 
ornament dug from among the damps and darkness of the mine " 
(Johnson). Cf. A. and C.\. i. 35 and v. 2. 7. 

17. Worm. Serpent ; as in A. and C. v. 2. 243, 256, etc. For 
the old notion that the serpent wounds with its forked tongue, cf. 
M. N. D. iii. 2. 72 : — 

"An adder did it ; for with doubler tongue 
Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung." 

Knight thinks that the worm of the grave is meant in the present 
passage. 

18. Provok^st. Dost invoke, or seek. Cf. Lear, iv. 4. 13 : "that 
to provoke in him " (referring to sleep). 

19. Death, which is no more. Johnson remarks: "I cannot 
without indignation find S. saying that death is only sleep, lengthen- 
ing out his exhortation by a sentence which in the friar is impious, 
in the reasoner is foolish, and in the poet trite and vulgar." But, 
as Malone replies, the poet means only " that the passage from this 
life to another is easy as sleep ; a position in which there is surely 
neither folly nor impiety." 

20. Exisfst. The folio has "exists." See on ii. 2. 116 above. 

23. Certain. Stable ; as the context shows. 

24. Effects. Expressions. Johnson wanted to read " affects " 



1 82 Notes [Act III 

(= "affections, passions of mind"). It is not necessary, however, 
to refer complexion to the mind, as he and some other critics do ; 
it may mean the face as expressive of the shifting emotions within. 
Cf. W. T. i. 2. 381 : "Your chang'd complexions are to me a 
mirror," etc. 

29. Sire, The reading of the 4th folio ; the earlier folios have 
" fire." 

31. Serpigo. A cutaneous eruption ; mentioned again in T. and 
C. ii. 3. 81. Here the ist folio has "sapego," the other folios 
" sarpego." 

34. Dreaming on both. " This is exquisitely imagined. When 
we are young, we busy ourselves in forming schemes for succeeding 
time, and miss the gratifications that are before us ; when we are 
old, we amuse the languor of age with the recollection of youthful 
pleasures or performances : so that our life, of which no part is 
filled with the business of the present time, resembles our dreams 
after dinner, when the events of the morning are mingled with the 
designs of the evening " (Johnson) . 

35. Becomes as aged, etc. This has been suspected, not without 
reason, and sundry attempts at emendation have been made : " be- 
comes an indigent," "becomes assuaged," "becomes engaged," 
"becomes enaged," "becomes abased" (the Cambridge editors), 
etc. Clarke explains the old text thus : " becomes as if it were 
aged, carkingly coveting those things that belong to old people — 
such as riches, experience, etc." Mr. Symons says : " The Duke, 
with a pessimism worthy of Leopardi, is going over the catalogue 
of miseries, cunningly extracting poison from the fairest flowers of 
life, and finally he declares that neither in youth nor age is there 
anything enjoyable, at least according to man's way of dealing 
with the seasons ; for even in youth he is devoured with the ennui 
and care proper to age, and is as feeble and nerveless as a palsied 
beggar-man, with strength neither of body nor of will." 

36. Eld. Cf. M. W. iv. 4. 36 : " The superstitious, idle- 
headed eld." In T. and C. ii. 2. 104, the modern reading is 



Scene I] Notes 183 

"Virgins and boys, mid-age and wrinkled eld;" but the folios 
have " old " and the quarto " elders." 

40. Moe thousand deaths. A thousand more deaths. Moe is 
used only with plural or collective nouns. Cf. Hen. VIII. ii. 3. 
97 : "moe thousands," etc. 

46. Sh'. Mason thinks this "too courtly" for the friar, who 
elsewhere addresses Claudio and Isabella as son and daughter, and 
conjectures that we should read "son." 

52. Bring me, etc. The first folio reads "Bring them to hear 
me speak," and the later folios " Bring them to speak." The 
obvious emendation was suggested by Steevens. 

58. Lieger. A resident ambassador. Cf. Cynib. i. 5. 80, the 
only other instance of the word in S. The editors generally follow 
the folio in spelling the word "leiger." Steevens quotes Leices- 
ter's Commonwealth : " a special man of that hasty king, who was 
his ledger, or agent, in London." 

59. Appointment. Equipment, preparation. Cf. Ham. iv. 6. 
16, etc. 

67. Ay, just. Cf. v. I. 200 below. See also Much Ado, ii. i. 
29, v. I. 164, etc. 

68. Vastidity. Vastness, immensity ; used by S. only here, and 
perhaps his coinage. On the passage Mr. Symons remarks : 
"This magnificent conception of a life fettered and confined 
within the limits of its remorse may be compared with the feebler, 
more rhetorical, but still fine image of Byron in The Giaour : — 

"The mind that broods o'er guilty woes 
Is like the scorpion girt by fire, 
In circle narrowing as it glows," etc. 

69. To a determined scope. "A confinement of your mind to 
one painful idea — to ignominy of which the remembrance can 
neither be suppressed nor escaped " (Johnson) . 

71. Bark. Peel, strip ; as in A. and C. iv. 12. 23 : "This pine 
is bark' d." In Ham. i. 5. 71, it is = grow like the bark of a tree. 



184 Notes [Act III 

74. Entertain. Desire to maintain. Fear = fear for ; as often. 

78. And the poor beetle, etc. " That is, fear is the principal sen- 
sation in death, which has no pain ; and the giant, when he dies, 
feels no greater pain than the beetle" (Douce). 

79. Sufferance. Suffering; as in 2 Hen. IV. v. 4. 28, Cor. i. I. 
22, Lear, iii. 6. 113, etc. 

81. Think you I can, etc. The meaning is not clear, though 
the editors generally pass the question without comment. I am 
inclined to think that Schmidt is right in vaokmg from Jlowery ten- 
derness = " from a tender woman, ' whose action is no stronger 
than a flower ' (^Sonn. 65. 4)." Clarke understands that " Claudio 
asks his sister whether she thinks he can derive courage from a 
figurative illustration — that of the 'poor beetle.'" Hudson is 
doubtful about the meaning, but thinks it may be "Do you think 
me so effeminate in soul as to be capable of an unmanly resolu- 
tion ? or, such a milksop as to quail and collapse at the prospect 
of death ? " Heath would make the sentence imperative, and = 
" Do me the justice to think that I am able to draw a resolution 
even from this tenderness of youth, which is commonly found to 
be less easily reconciled to so sudden and harsh a fate ; " but I 
cannot imagine Claudio applying the expression fiowery tenderness 
to himself. It seems to be used with a touch of contempt for the 
weak girl who thinks that he needs to be nerved up to resolution 
in the face of death, and that she can inspire him with it. Mr. 
Symons adopts my explanation : " The phrase flowery tenderness 
appears to be used by Claudio in mockery or resentment of his 
sister's stoic counsels, coming, as they do, from her, a mere woman, 
a creature tender as a flower, to him, a man, supposing himself 
valiant." 

87. Conserve. Preserve. The only other instance of the word 
in S. is in 0th. iii. 4. 75 : " Conserv'd of maidens' hearts ; " where, 
by the way, Schmidt would read " with the skilful Conserves," etc. 
In base appliances = by base means. 

90, Follies doth emmew. " Forces follies to lie in cover, with- 



Scene I] Notes 185 

out daring to show themselves" (Johnson). Steevens compares 
3 Hen. VI. i. i. 45 : — 

" Neither the king nor he that loves him best, 
The proudest he that holds up Lancaster, 
Dares stir a wing, if Warwick shake his bells." 

Cf. R. of L. ^\\ : " With trembling fear, as fowl hear falcon's 
bells." Emmew \s, = me'w (see M. N. D. i. i. 71) or mew tip 
{Rich. III. i. I. 2)^, i. 3. 139). A writer in the Editt. Rev. Oct. 
1872, proposes "enew" (a term in aquatic falconry, meaning 
to drive the fowl back to the water as a refuge from the hawk) ; 
but Madden (^Diary of William Silence, 1897) ^^7^ "^^^ enmezv, 
or inmew, means to lie close or keep concealed, like a hawk when 
mewing, and cites this passage as one of his illustrations. Mew 
originally meant to moult, or shed the feathers ; and as a noun, 
" the place, whether it be abroad or in the house, in which the 
hawk is put during the time she casts, or doth change her feath- 
ers" (R. lilolvixQS^?) Academy of Armory, etc.). Spenser has both 
verb and noun ; as in /^ ^. i. 5. 20 : — 

" forth comming from her darksome mew, 
Where she all day did hide her hated hew ; " 

Id. ii. 3. 34 : — 

" Unto the bush her eye did suddein glaunce, 
In which vain Braggadocchio was mewd." 

Milton uses the verb in the magnificent description of Liberty in 
Of Unlicensed Printing : " Methinks I see her as an eagle mewing 
her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full mid- 
day beam." In England the noun is still used in the plural (jnews) 
to denote a stable for horses ; the royal stables in London having 
been called 7news from the original use of the building for keeping 
the king's falcons. 

93. Priestly. The 1st folio has " prenzie," both here and in 96 
below ; and attempts have been made to explain that word : by 



1 86 Notes [Act III 

comparison with the Scottish prhnsie ( = demure, precise) , by 
connecting it with the old Fr. prin (= demure), etc. It has not, 
however, been proved to be English, and is pretty clearly a mis- 
print for priestly (Hanmer's emendation) or some other word. 
The 2d folio has " princely." " Saintly," " pensive," " primsie," 
etc., have also been proposed. 

96. Guards ! Literally = facings, or trimmings, and hence ap- 
plied to outward appearances. Cf. the use of the verb in M. of V. 

ii. 2. 164 : — 

" Give him a livery 
More guarded than his fellows'," etc. 

99. He would give V thee, etc. He would allow thee, in conse- 
quence of this offence of mine, to go on offending in this way for- 
ever. For still = ever, cf. iv. 2. 136, v. i. 410, 471 below. 

107. Has he affections, etc. " Is he actuated by passions that 
impel him to transgress the law, at the very moment that he is 
enforcing it against others ?" (Malone). To bite the law by the 
nose is rather to treat it with contempt. 

no. The deadly seven. These were pride, envy, wrath, sloth, 
covetousness, gluttony, and lechery (Douce). 

113. Trick. Caprice. Cf. ii. 2. 121 and iii. 2. 96. 

114. Per dur ably fin^d? Everlastingly punished. We find Z^;'- 
durable in Hen. V. iv. 5. 7 and 0th. i. 3. 343. For fln^d, cf. the 
use of the noun in ii. 2. 40 above. 

120. Delighted. Accustomed to delight; as Warburton and 
Johnson explained it. " Dilated," " delinquent," " benighted," 
" delated," etc., have been proposed. 

122. Thrilling. Thrillingly or shiveringly cold. Ci. JR. and /. 
iv. 3. 15 : "I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins." 

Region. Changed by Rowe (followed by many editors) to 
" regions ; " but, as Dr. Ingleby contends, region is here " used 
as an abstract, and in the radical sense," and = " restricted place, 
or confinement." He adds that Carlyle appears so to have under- 
stood it ; for in his Heroes and Hero- Worship he paraphrases it as 



Scene I] Notes 187 

" imprisonment of thick-ribbed ice." So just below thought (for 
which Theobald reads " thoughts ") is abstract and the object to 
imagine. Incertain = unsettled. Dr. Ingleby paraphrases the lat- 
ter part of the passage thus : " or to be in an infinitely worse case 
than those who body forth — or render objective — their own law- 
less and distracted mind." 

Mr. Marshall remarks on the passage : " Perhaps one of the 
descriptions that Shakespeare had in his mind was that contained 
in The Revelation of the Monk of Evesham, published in 1482. 
(See Arber's reprint of this curious work from the unique copy in 
the British Museum, and compare, especially, chapters 15, 17, 24, 
in which the Three Places of Pains and Torments of Purgatory are 
described.) As to the word howling, it is worth while, perhaps, to 
quote the well-known lines in Hamlet, addressed to the Priest by 
Laertes over his sister's grave, v. i. 263-265 : — 

' I tell thee, churlish priest, 
A ministering angel shall my sister be 
When thou liest howling.' 

With the whole of the passage quoted above we may compare the 
following lines from Milton, P, L. ii. 596 fol. : — 

' Thither by harpy-footed furies hal'd. 
At certain revolutions, all the damn'd 
Are brought ; and feel by turns the bitter change 
Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce, 
From beds of raging fire, to starve in ice 
Their soft etherial warmth, and there to pine 
Immovable, infix'd, and frozen round, 
Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire.' " 

124. And blown, etc. Cf. 0th. v. 2. 279 : "Blow me about in 
winds ! Roast me in sulphur ! " 

.I33. What sin you do, etc. The following note is from Ver- 
planck : " ' One of the most dramatic passages in the present play 
(says Hazlitt, in his Characters of Shakespeare^ s Plays), is the 
interview between Claudio and his sister, when she comes to 



1 88 Notes [Act III 

inform him of the conditions on which Angelo will spare his life. 
What adds to the dramatic beauty of the scene, and the effect of 
Claudio's passionate attachment to life, is that it immediately fol- 
lows the duke's lecture to him, in the character of the friar, 
recommending an absolute indifference to it.' The attempt of 
Claudio to prove to his sister that the loss of her chastity, upon 
such an occasion, will be a virtue, is finely characteristic of the 
profound knowledge Shakespeare possessed of the intricate com- 
plexities of the human heart. ' Shakespeare was, in one sense, the 
least moral of all writers (says Hazlitt) ; for morality (commonly 
so called) is made up of antipathies ; and his talent consisted in 
sympathy with human nature, in all its shapes, degrees, depres- 
sions, and elevations. The object of the pedantic moralist is to 
find out the bad in every thing ; his was to show that " there is 
some soul of goodness in things evil." ' With reference to the 
representation of such scenes on the stage, Schlegel observes : 
* It is certainly to be wished that decency should be observed on 
all public occasions, and consequently also on the stage ; but even 
in this it is possible to go too far. That censorious spirit, which 
scents out impurity in every sally of a bold and vivacious descrip- 
tion, is at best but an ambiguous criterion of purity of morals ; and 
there is frequently concealed under this hypocrisy the conscious- 
ness of an impure imagination. The determination to tolerate 
nothing which has the least reference to the sensual relation be- 
tween the two sexes may be carried to a pitch extremely oppressive 
to a dramatic poet, and injurious to the boldness and freedom of 
his composition. If considerations of such a nature were to be 
attended to, many of the happiest parts of the plays of Shake- 
speare — for example, in Measure for Measure and AWs Well that 
Ends Well — which are handled with a due regard to decency, 
must be set aside for their impropriety.' " 

134. Dispenses with. Excuses, pardons. Cf. C. ofE. ii. I. 103: 
" can with such wrongs dispense^" etc. See also R. of L. 1070, 
1279, 1704, and Sonn. 112. 12. 



Scene I] Notes 189 

140. Heaven shield my mother played my father fair ! " God 
grant that thou wert not my father's true son ! " (Schmidt). Cf. 
R. and J. iv. I. 41: "God shield I should disturb devotion!" 
See also A. W. i. 3. 1 74. 

141. Wilderness. Wildness. Slip of wilderness = vi\\di slip. 
Steevens quotes Old Fortunatus, 1600: "But I in wilderness 
totter'd out my youth," etc. 

142. Defiance ! Indignant refusal. Cf. defy = refuse, spurn ; 
as in JiT. John, iii. 4. 23 : " No, I defy all counsel, all redress," etc. 

148. A trade. " A custom, a practice, an established habit " 
(Johnson) . 

162. Assay. Trial, test. 

168. Do not satisfy, etc. "Do not feel your resolution — or 
sustain your courage — with hopes that are groundless" (Clarke). 
Schmidt paraphrases it thus : " Do not set yourself at ease, do not 
gratify yourself, who were just now resolved to die, with false 
hopes." 

173. Hold you there. "There rest" (ii. 3. 36 above), remain 
in that frame of mind. 

180. In good time. "A la bonne heure, so be it, very well" 
(Steevens). 

182. The goodness that is cheap, etc. "The goodness which, 
when associated with beauty, is held cheap, does not remain long 
so associated ; but grace, being the very life of your features, must 
continue to preserve their beauty " (Verplanck). 

188. How will you, etc. The Variorum of 1821 has "would" 
for will ; not noted in the Cambridge ed. 

190. Resolve. Inform, answer. Cf. Rich. III. iv. 2. 26, 120, 
etc. 

194. Discover. Uncover, expose; as in Lear, ii. i. 68: "I 
threaten'd to discover him," etc. 

198. He made trial of you only. That is, he will say so. 

201. Uprighteously. "Uprightly" (Pope's reading), righteously ; 
used by S. only here. 



190 Notes [Act III 

212. Miscarried. Was lost. Cf. M. of V. ii. 8. 29: "there 
miscarried a vessel of our country;" Id. iii. 2. 318: "my ships 
have all miscarried," etc. 

215. She should this Angela, etc. Pope "corrected" she to 
" her," but S. often confuses the inflections of pronouns. See on 
i. I. 31 above. 

216. Nuptial. The plural is not found in the ist folio. It 
occurs in the later folios in Temp. v. i. 308, M. N. D. \. i. 125, 
v. I. 75 ; and in the quartos in 0th. ii. 2. 8. 

217. Limit. Appointed time, or date. 

218. Wracked. The only form in the early eds. The noun 
is always wrack. 

224. Combinate. Contracted, betrothed ; the only instance of 
the word in S. 

229. In few. In short. See on i. 4. 39 above. 

230. Bestowed her on her own lamentation. " Left her to her 
sorrows" (Malone). 

247. Refer yourself to. " Have recourse to, betake yourself 
to" (Steevens). 

253. Stead up your appointment. That is, keep it in your 
stead. We have already had the verb in i. 4. 17 above. 

257. Foiled. The early eds. have "scaled," which has been 
explained as = " weighed," and by others as = " stripped " or 
" unmasked." I have little hesitation in accepting White's emen- 
dation of foiled. S., however, has scale = weigh in Cor. ii. 3. 257. 

258. Frame. Prepare, fashion ; as in M. N. D. iii. 2. 360, 
Much Ado, i. 3. 26, etc. 

269. Grange. A solitary farm-house. Cf. Oth.\. i. 106: — 

" What tell'st thou me of robbing ? This is Venice ; 
My house is not a grange." 

Scene II. — 4. Bastard. A kind of sweet wine. Cf. i Hen. 
IV. ii. 4. 30 : "a pint of bastard," etc. 

9. Fox and lamb skins. Capell reads simply " fox-skins," and 



Scene II] Notes 191 

Mason conjectures " fox on lamb-skins." Clarke remarks: "The 
passage seems to us to imply, furred (that is, lined with lamb- 
skin fur inside, and trimmed with fox-skin fur outside) with both 
kinds of fur, to show that craft (fox-skin), being richer than inno- 
cency (lamb-skin), is used for the decoration." 

14. Brother father. As friar =:frh^e, or brother, the duke 
returns Elbow's blundering address with one in the same vein. 
Tyrwhitt remarks that the joke would be clearer in French : 
" Dieu vous benisse, mon pere frere. — Et vous aussi, mon frere 
pere." 

26. Eat, array. The folios have " eat away ; " corrected by 
Theobald. 

40. Free from our faults, etc. The ist folio reads : " From 
our faults, as faults from seeming free." The 2d folio has "Free 
from our faults," etc., and Hanmer corrects the latter part of the 
line as in the text. This restores both rhythm and sense to the 
line. Some retain the old reading, making it = " Would that we 
were as free from faults as our faults are from seeming " (hypoc- 
risy) ; but that seems forced. 

41. Will come to your waist, — a cord, sir. That is, will come to 
have a cord round it, as your waist has ; alluding to the hempen 
cord which the Franciscan friars wore as a girdle. 

46. Is there none of Pygmalion^ s itfiages, etc. Have you no 
women for your customers as fresh and untouched as Pygmalion's 
statue was when it became a living woman ? 

51. Trot. A contemptuous epithet, applied in T. of S. i. 2. 80 
to an old woman. As White remarks, there could be no more ap- 
propriate name for a bawd's assistant. 

58. In the tub. Alluding to the " powder ing-tub " or " sweat- 
ing-tub," which was a part of the current treatment for the French 
disease. Cf. Hen. V. ii. i. 79: "the powdering-tub of infamy," 
etc. 

60. Unshunned. " Unshunnable " (^Oth.\\\. 3. 275), inevitable; 
used by S. nowhere else. 



192 Notes [Act III 

71. Husband. Alluding to the received etymology of the word 
— houseband. 

75. Not the wear. Not the fashion. Cf. A. V. L. ii. 7. 34: 
" Motley's the only wear," etc. 

82. Come your ways. Used some dozen times by S. Conie 
your way occurs only in 12 above. So go your ways is more com- 
mon than go your way. 

84. Then, Pompey, nor now. That is, neither then nor now ; 
playing on Pompey's then: 

107. Extirp. Used again in l Hen. VI. iii. 3. 24. Extirpate 
occurs only in Temp. i. 2. 125. 

124. Detected. Capell reads " Detracted." Verplanck remarks : 
" The use of this word, in the various extracts from old authors col- 
lected by the commentators, shows that its old meaning was (not 
suspected, as some of them say, but) charged, arraigned, accused. 
Thus, in Greenway's Tacitus (1622), the Roman senators who 
informed against their kindred are said ' to have detected the dear- 
est of their kindred.' " 

129. Use. Habit ; as in M. of V. iv. I. 268, Ham. iii. 4. 168, etc. 

Clack-dish. A wooden dish used by beggars to collect alms in ; 
so called because they clacked the hinged cover to attract atten- 
tion. Steevens quotes The Eajnily of Love, 1608: "Can you think 
I get my living by a bell and a clack-dish ? " and a stage-direction 
in 2 Edw. IV., 16 19: "Enter Mrs. Blague, very poorly, begging 
with her basket and a clap-dish." 

133. An inward. An intimate friend. Cf. Rich. III. iii. 4. 8: 
" "Who is most inward with the royal duke ? " 

Shy. Demure. Hanmer reads " sly," which may be right ; but 
cf. V. I. 54, the only other instance of the word in S. 

139. File. Number, multitude; as in Cor. i. 6. 43: "the com- 
mon file," etc. For subject, cf. v. i. 14 below. See also Ham. i. 
I. 72, i. 2. ZZ, etc. 

142. Unweighing. Inconsiderate, thoughtless. Cf. unweighed 
in M. W. ii. i. 23 ; like this, the one instance of the word in S. 



Scene iij Notes 193 

146. Helmed. Conducted, managed ; used by S. only here. 

150. Unskilfully. Without knowledge or judgment; used by 
S. only here. The same is true of testimonied just below. 

168. Unhurtful. Another word used by the poet only once. 
For opposite = opponent, cf. T. N. iii. 2. 68 : " his opposite, the 
youth ; " and see Id. iii. 4. 253, 293, etc. 

175. Tun-dish. Tunnel, or funnel; used by S. only here, 

177. Ungenitured. Schmidt makes the word = impotent; but 
perhaps it is explained by 109 above. 

183. Untrussing. Explained by Schmidt as " unpacking ; " 
but more correctly, I think, by Dyce, as " untying the points or 
tagged laces which attached the hose or breeches to the doublet." 
S. uses the word only here. 

184. Would eat mutton on Fridays. The play on fnutton 
(the expression laced mutton being slang for a courtesan) is a 
common one in the plays of the period. It occurs in Promos and 
Cassandra^ Part I. i. 3 : — 

" I heard of one Phallax, 
A man esteemde, of Promos verie much : 
Of whose Nature, I was so bolde to axe, 
And I smealt, he loved lase mutton well." 

190. Scape. Not a contraction of escape, being used in prose 
by S., as by Bacon and others. 

199. Forfeit. Explained by Steevens as a verb (= transgress, 
offend), but probably an adjective (= liable to penalty), as Schmidt 
makes it. Cf. ii. 2. 73 above. 

207. Come Philip and Jacob. That is, the feast of St. Philip 
and St. James {\j3X\xi, Jacobus^, or May ist. 

224. From the See. That is, from Rome. The folios have 
" Sea ; " corrected by Theobald. 

228. The dissolution of it. The death of goodness. The mean- 
ing is : " Virtue has become so extreme that it must have a speedy 
end. The reference is to the overstrained sanctity and zeal of 
Angelo" (Verplanck). 

MEASURE FOR MEASURE — I3 



194 Notes [Act III 

232. Security enough, etc. Alluding to the trouble that a man 
often gets into by becoming security for a friend. Holt White 
quotes Proverbs, xi. 15. 

252. Is he resolved to die. He has made up his mind for death. 

254. Your function. Your priestly duty. Cf. T.N. iv. 2. 8, v. i. 
164, etc. 

259. Indeed justice. That is, the very embodiment of justice 
pure and simple, with no mingling of mercy. Steevens sees a 
reference to the maxim, " Summum jus, summa injuria." 

260. Straitness. Strictness ; the only instance of the word in S. 
266. He who the sword, etc. I unhesitatingly agree with White 

that these poor rhymes are not Shakespeare's, but the " tag " of 
some one connected with the theatre. "They are entirely super- 
fluous, having no dramatic purpose, and uttering no moral truth 
that has not had infinitely better utterance before. Their rhythmical 
expression is entirely inconsistent with their sentiment and with the 
diction of the serious parts of this play ; it was not in Shakespeare 
to stop the Duke and set him off in this octosyllable canter upon 
the same road over which he had paced before with such severe 
and stately dignity. The lines are a mere succession of couplets, 
each containing a perfect if not an isolated thought, which is not 
Shakespeare's manner under any circumstances, and, above all, in 
such a soliloquy as the Duke's ; ' non color, non vultus.' If we 
will, we must believe that this soliloquy was written by Shakespeare 
after those in Hamlet. Let who will believe it ! " 

268, 269. Pattern . . . go. The meaning seems to be : to be in 
himself a pattern ; to have grace to stand firm, and virtue to go 
forward. Clarke paraphrases the couplet thus : *' Should be in 
himself a pattern whereby to know how grace ought to bear itself, 
and how virtue ought to proceed." 

275. My vice. It has been disputed whether my — " of my 
dukedom " or is used indefinitely. I have no doubt that the latter 
is the meaning : to weed the vice of another, and let his own grow. 

278. Wade. The folios have "made," which, as Malone sug- 



Scene I] Notes 195 

gested, is probably a misprint for wade. Other changes have been 
suggested, and attempts have been made to explain the old reading. 



ACT IV 



Scene I. — i. Take, O, take those lips away, etc. In The Bloody 
Brother, by Beaumont and Fletcher, this stanza appears with the 
addition of the following : — 

" Hide, O hide those hills of snow 
" Which thy frozen bosom bears, 

On whose tops the pinks that grow 

Are of those that April wears ; 
But first set my poor heart free, 
Bound in those icy chains by thee." 

Both were printed in the spurious edition of Shakespeare's Poems, 
published in 1640; but probably the second is Fletcher's. White 
remarks : " The two stanzas in fact will not make one song, except 
at great violence to both the form and spirit of the first. For that 
is written so that the music shall repeat the last three syllables of 
each of the last two lines, which is impossible with the other : they 
can both be sung to the same music only by suppressing the beauti- 
ful and touching repetition in the first ; and this was done when it 
was introduced in The Bloody Brother. Besides, the stanza added 
in that play is palpably addressed to a woman, while this is just as 
certainly and as clearly, though not just as palpably, addressed to a 
man. The command to the boy to break off his song is but a 
dramatic contrivance to procure the effect of an intrusion upon 
Mariana's solitude." It may be added that the second stanza is 
poetically inferior to the first ; marred as it is by the conceit — 
quite in the taste of the time, to be sure — in the second couplet, 
and by " those icy chains," which makes a confusion of metaphors, 
to say nothing of the awkward repetition of those. I suspect, how- 
ever, that Fletcher wrote " these icy chains." 



196 Notes [Act IV 

6. Seals of love, etc. Steevens compares Sonn. 142. 7 : — 

" those lips of thine, 
That have profan'd their scarlet ornaments, 
And seal'd false bonds of love as oft as mine ; " 

and V. and A. 511 : " Pure lips, sweet seals in my soft lips im- 
printed." 

10. / cry you 7?iercy. I beg your pardon. Cf. M. N. D. iii. I. 
182, M. W. iii. 5. 27, etc. 

13. My mirth, etc. "Though the music soothed my sorrows, it 
had no tendency to produce light merriment " (Johnson). 

18. Meet. Hanmer adds " one ; " but cf. M. W. ii. 3. 5 : " 'T is 
past the hour, sir, that Sir Hugh promised to meet ; " and A. Y. L. 
V. 2. 129 : "as you love Phebe, meet; and as I love no woman, 
I '11 meet." 

21. Constantly. Firmly ; as in T. and C. iv. i. 40, etc. 

28. Circumniur''d. "Walled round ; used by S. only here. 

30. Planched. Planked, made of boards ; used by S. only here. 
Steevens quotes Gorges, Lucan, 1614 : "The planched floor," etc. 
We find also plancher = plank ; as in Lyly, Maid's Metamorphosis, 
1600 : "A hollow plancher," etc. 

31. His. Its ; as often before its came into general use. See 
on i. 2. 4 above. 

34-36. There . . . him. The folio reads : — 

" There haue I made my promise, vpon the 
Heauy midle of the night, to call vpon him." 

Various re-arrangements have been proposed, that in the text being 
Walker's conjecture, adopted by the Cambridge editors, Dyce, and 
others. Dyce says that it was recommended to him by Tennyson 
in 1844. 

Heavy seems here to be = drowsy, sleepy ; as in Temp. i. 2. 189, 
194, 198, M. N. D. V. I. 380, etc. In 0th. v. i. 42 ''heavy night" 
probably means cloudy or gloomy night. 



Scene I] Notes 197 

40. Action all of precept. " Shewing the several turnings of the 
way with his hand" (Warburton). 

42. Concerning her observance. "Which it concerns her to ob- 
serve. Greed should not be printed " 'greed." It is used in 
prose ; as in M. of V. ii. 2. 108, T. of S. ii. i. 299, etc. 

44. Possess'' d. Informed ; as in Much Ado, v. I. 290, Af. of V. 
i. 3. 65, etc. 

Mosl. Utmost. Cf. Ham. i. 5. 180 : "your most need," 2 Hen. 
IV. iv. I. 71 : "our most quiet," etc. We do not use it with a 
possessive pronoun now. 

47. Stays upon. Waits for. Cf. Macb. i. 3. 148 : "stay upon 
your leisure," etc. 

48. Borne up. Arranged, devised. 

61. Are stuck upon thee. Cf, A. W. v. 3. 45 : "I stuck my 
choice upon her," etc. 

62. Quests. Spyings. Contrarious here is = contradictory, or 
perhaps merely = diverse. S. uses the word elsewhere only in 
I Hen. IV. V. I. 52 : "contrarious winds." 

63. Escapes. Sallies ; the only instance of this sense in S. 

65. Rack, Probably = strain, distort, misrepresent. Cf. r acker 
in I. I. L. V. I. 21 : "rackers of orthography." 

72. Pre-contract. Betrothal ; the only use of the term in this 
formal sense in S. Contract occurs often ; as in i. 2. 146, iii. I. 
208, and V. I. 207. Cf. T. N. v. i. 159, etc. 

74. Sith. Since. See on i. 3. 35 above. 

75. Flourish. " Colour, varnish " (Schmidt), or grace. Cf. the 
noun in Sonn. 60. 9 : " the flourish set on youth." 

76. Tilth's. The folios have "Tithes" or "Tythes," and the 
Cambridge ed. reads " tithe 's." The reading in the text is War- 
burton's very probable conjecture, to which great support is given 
by Markham's English Husbandman, 1635 • "After the beginning 
of March you shall begin to sowe your barley upon that ground 
which the year before did lie fallow, and is commonly called your 
tilth or fallowfield." Halliwell-Phillipps cites a passage from 



198 Notes [Act IV 

Gower in which sowing tilth is mentioned. For tilth, see on i. 4. 
44 above. 

Scene II. — 6. Leave me your snatches. None of your attempts 
at catching me up ! For tne, cf. i. 2. 166 and ii. i. 120 above. 

II. Gyves. Fetters; as in i%://z. iv. 7. 21, etc. 

13. Unpitied. Unmerciful. Cf. Rich.JII. iv. 4. 74 and A. and 
C. i. 3. 98. 

23. Compound. Make an agreement. 

26. Estifnation. Reputation. 

29. Mystery. Calling, trade. S. uses the word several times in 
this sense ; as in 0th. iv. 2. 30 and T. of A. iv. i. 18, iv. 3. 458. 
This is a different word from 7?tystery — a secret rite, etc., which is 
derived through the Latin mysterium, from the Greek fiva^TTfipiov ; 
while mystery, or mistery as it should be spelt, is from the Middle 
English mistere, a word used by Chaucer, and adapted from the old 
French mestier, which Cotgrave translates " a trade, occupation, 
mistery^'' Spenser uses jnysterie = " the soldier's occupation," in 
Mother Hubberds Tale : — 

" Shame light on him that through so false illusion, 
Doth turne the name of Souldiers to abusion, 
And that which is the noblest mysterie, 
Brings to reproach and common infamie." 

33. A good favour you have. There is a play upon favour = 
face. Cf. Genesis, xxix. 17, etc. See also 177 below. 

44. True man's. Honest man's ; often opposed to thief. 

45. If it be too little, etc. The folios give this to " Clo.^' or 
Pompey ; but Capell, followed by most of the editors, transfers 
it to Abhorson. Clarke explains it satisfactorily thus : " Abhorson 
states his proof that hanging is a mystery by saying * Every true 
man's apparel fits your thief,' and the clown, taking the words out 
of his mouth, explains them after his own fashion, and ends by 
saying * So (in this way, or thus) every true man's apparel fits your 
thief.' Moreover, the speech is much more in character with the 



Scene II] Notes 199 

clown's snip-snap style of chop-logic than with Abhorson's manner, 
which is remarkably curt and bluff." 

52. He doth oftener ask forgiveness. It was the custom for the 
executioner to ask forgiveness of the criminal before fulfilling his 
ofiace. Cf. A. V.Z. iii. 5. 3 : 

" The common executioner, 
Whose heart the accustom'd sight of death makes hard, 
Falls not his axe upon the humbled neck 
But first begs pardon." 

59. Yare. Ready, apt. Cf. A. and C. iii. 13. 130 : 

"A halter'd neck which does the hangman thank 
For being yare about him." 

68. Starkly. Stiffly, as if dead ; the only instance of the adverb 
in S. Cf. the adjective (used only of dead bodies) in I Hen. IV, 
V. 3. 42, R. and J. iv. I. 103, and Cymb. iv. 2. 209. 

74. Wholesont'st. Cf. wickedest, v. I. 53 below ; and see p. 
145 above. 

76. Curfew. S. transfers the English (and earlier Norman 
French) curfew bell to Vienna, as he does to Italy in R. and f. 
iv. 4. 4 (cf. Temp. v. I. 40). 

77. They. The plural pronoun has bothered some of the critics ; 
but the duke is expecting both Isabella and the messenger with a 
reprieve. Cf. 86 below. 

81. Stroke. The metaphor, as Johnson notes, is taken from the 
stroke of a pen. But it "also suggests the penal axe" (Herford). 

84. Qualify. Abate, control. Cf. Ham. iv. 7. 114, Lear, i. 2. 
176, etc. J/^a/V = "sprinkled, defiled" (Johnson). Blackstone 
made it = " mingled, compounded" (Fr. meler). S. uses the 
verb only here. 

86. This being so. The case being as it is ; this referring, not 
to what immediately precedes, but to the former part of the 
speech. 

87. Seldom when. Some print " seldom-when ; " but this is 



200 Notes [Act IV 

unnecessary, seldom when being = " 't is seldom when " (it is sel- 
dom that) in 2 Hen. IV. iv. 4. 79. 

89. Spirit. Monosyllabic ; as often. 

90. Unsisting. Explained by some as = unresting, but probably 
a misprint. Rowe reads " unresisting," Hanmer " unresting," and 
Capell " unshifting." White reads "unlisting," which was pro- 
posed by Mason, and is as good an emendation as any. If 
unsisting means " never at rest, always opening " (the definition 
is due to Blackstone), the word seems out of place when the door 
is at rest. 

96. Happily. Haply ; as often in the early editions, but gener- 
ally changed to haply in the modern ones when dissyllabic. 

99. Siege. Seat (Fr. siege). Cf. its use (=rank) in Ham.xv. 
7. 77 : " Of the unworthiest siege ; " and 0th. i. 2. 22 : " men of 
royal siege." 

loi. Lordship's. The folios have "lords; " corrected by Pope. 
The error probably arose from the use of the contraction " Lord." 
for lordship. In T. of S. ind. 2. 2, the folio reads " Wilt please 
your Lord drink a cup of sacke ? " 

102. And here comes, etc. The folios give this speech to ^' Pro." 
but it evidently belongs to the Duke, as Tyrwhitt conjectured. 
The " Henry Irving " ed., though it makes the change, defends 
the folio reading thus : " The Provost, judging from what he knows 
of Angelo's character, has said that he has no expectation of a 
remand. At that moment Angelo's servant enters. 'This is his 
lordship's man,' says the Duke significantly. 'And here comes 
Claudio's pardon ! ' cries the Provost, now at last convinced. Is 
not all this very natural ? The Provost, despite the opinion he 
holds to the contrary, has just confessed that 'haply' the pretended 
friar may be in the secret, and ' something know.' Would not the 
unexpected entrance of Angelo's servant — at so very unusual an 
hour (' almost day,' as he ^ays in leaving) — force a strong proba- 
bility on the Provost's mind that after all the friar is right ? 
Another imaginary inconsistency is brought forward by Knight in 



Scene II] Notes 20 1 

support of the change : that of the Provost's first saying, * Here 
comes Claudio's pardon,' and then, * I told you [that he had no 
chance of a pardon].' Here again the process of mind is quite 
natural. Having read the letter, and found out what it really is, 
the Provost is of course in the same mind as before as to Angelo's 
character, and the improbability of his pardoning Claudio. Thus, 
when the Duke questions him, ' What news ? ' he replies (ignoring 
his momentary change of front), ' I told you ; ' that is, ' I told you 
before that Claudio must die.' " 

III. His. Its. See on iv. i. 31 above. 

118. Putiing-on. Urging, incitement. Cf. G?r. ii. 3. 260 : "you 
ne'er had done 't . . . but by our putting on," etc. 

129. What is, etc. Who is, etc. ; as often. Cf. 2 Hen. IV. 
i. 2. 66 : " What 's he that goes there ? " 

132. Nine years old. Cf. Ham. iv. 6. 15 : "Ere we were two 
days old at sea," etc. 

137. Fad. Deed, crime. Schmidt makes the word always = 
crime ; but often the ordinary sense of " deed, thing done " (Latin 
factuni) is the more probable. 

147. Insensible of mortality and desperately mortal. " Insensible 
of his being subject to death, and desperate in his incurring of 
death" (Clarke). Schmidt, following Johnson, makes desperately 
m-ortal = " destined to die without hope of salvation." This may 
be preferable. 

158. In the boldness of my cunning. " In the confidence of my 
sagacity" (Steevens). 

162. In a manifested effect. "That is, so that its being manifest 
may be the effect or result of my exposition" (Schmidt). 

169. Limited. Appointed ; as in Macb. ii. 3. 56 : "my limited 
service," etc. 

177. Discover the favour. Recognize the face. Cf. ^fZ above. 

1 79. Tie the beard. Tie has been changed to " dye " and 
" trim ; " but, as Clarke remarks, it is probable that the beard 
was sometimes tied up out of the way of the axe, at the request of 



202 Notes [Act IV 

the sufferer. Sir Thomas More, when laying his head on the 
block, said to the executioner : " Let me put my beard aside ; that 
hath not committed treason." 

1 80. Bared. Referring to the shaving of the head, and perhaps 
also to the tying of the beard. The first three folios have " bar'de," 
and the 4th " barb'd." Dyce compares A. W. iv. i. 54 : "the 
baring of my beard." 

182. Fall to you upon this. Befall you on account of this. 

195. Attempt. Tempt ; as in M. of V. iv. I. 421 : " I must 
attempt you further," etc. 

198. Character. Handwriting. Cf. T. AL v. I. 354, Ham. iv. 
7. 53, etc. 

207. Is writ. Hanmer reads " is here writ," which is of course 
what is meant. 

208. The unfoldiitg star. The morning star. Cf. Milton, 

Co7nus, 93 : 

" The star that bids the shepherd fold 
Now the top of heaven doth hold." 

212. Present shrift. Immediate absolution (after confession). 
Cf. R. and J. ii. 3. 56 : " Riddling confession finds but riddling 
shrift." 

214. Absolutely resolve you. Fully convince you. Cf. J. C. iii. 
I. 131, iii. 2. 183, etc. 

Scene III. — 5. Brown paper. Rowe changes paper to " pep- 
per ; " but Steevens quotes Michaelmas Term, Com. 1 607 : " I 
know some gentlemen in town have been glad, and are glad at this 
time, to take up commodities in hawk's-hoods and brown paper ; " 
A New Trick to Cheat the Devil, 1636 : 

" to have been so bit already 
With taking up commodities of brown paper, 
Buttons past fashion, silks and satins. 
Babies and children's fiddles, with like trash 
Took up at a dear rate, and sold for trifles ; " 



Scene III] Notes 203 

Greene's Defence of Coney -Catching^ 1592 : "so that if he borrow 
an hundred pound, he shall have forty in silver, and threescore in 
wares ; as lute-strings, hobby-horses, or brown paper," etc. Far- 
mer and Douce add many similar passages, illustrating the practice 
of the money-lenders of that time. Verplanck remarks : "An 
amusing and instructive paper might be made up from the plays, 
novels, and essays of France and England, for the last three cen- 
turies, describing the still familiar arts of the money-lenders, to 
whom men of desperate credit are driven for aid, in contriving to 
avoid the usury laws, by obliging the hapless customer to take a 
portion of their loan in some unsalable commodities, such as 
'brown paper and old ginger.' From Shakespeare, who, as he 
soon became (in his own phrase) 'a rich fellow enough, and had 
every thing handsome about him,' must have described only the 
experience of others, to Sheridan, who doubtless related his own 
experience in that of Charles Surface, there is hardly an English 
writer of comic fiction but has at least hinted at this fruitful topic. 
Le Sage, Moliere, etc., down to the present novelists of Paris, have 
also found in this perpetual food for pleasantry ; and their laugh- 
able satire would not require much alteration to make it very 
intelligible on this side of the Atlantic. The first notice of it that 
has fallen in my way was in Wilson's Discourse on Usury (1572) ; 
and, as he speaks of it as being then no novelty, this establishes 
a very respectable antiquity for this time-honored usage." 

8. For the old women were all dead. On the fondness of old 
women for ginger, cf. M. of V. iii. i. 10: "I would she were as 
lying a gossip in that as ever knapped ginger," etc. 

II. Peaches hi7?i. Impeaches him as; an obvious play on 
peach-coloured. 

14. The rapier and dagger man. Among the ten prisoners 
mentioned in this speech are four " stabbers " and duellists ; and, 
according to Wilson the historian, the " roaring boys, bravadoes, 
roysters," and like characters had become so disorderly in 1604 that 
the "act of stabbing" (i Jac. I. c. 8) was passed to restrain them. 



204 Notes [Act IV 

1 6. Forthright. The folios have " Forthlight ; " corrected by 
Warburton. S. uses forthright in Temp. iii. 3. 3 and T. and C. 
iii. 3. 158. 

19. For the Lord^s sake. The cry of debtors in prison in beg- 
ging alms of the passers-by. Malone quotes a poem entitled 
Paper'' s Complaint, 161 1 : 

" Good gentle writers, for the Lord sake, for the Lord sake, 
Like Ludgate prisoner, lo, I (begging) make 
My mone to you ; " 

and Nash's Pierce Pennilesse, 1593 : "crying for the Lord's sake 
out at an iron window." 

22. Hanged. Often used loosely for " executed ; " as hang- 
man below (and often) for " executioner." 

35. I hear his straw rustle. "The effect of these few words, 
and of those immediately preceding, is marvellously strong, though 
so condensed. They give the impression of the caged wild-beast- 
man, with the unwillingness of his keepers to enter his den and 
bring him forth " (Clarke) . 

41. Clap into your prayers. Cf. A. Y. Z. v. 3. ii : "Shall we 
clap into 't roundly, without hawking or spitting ? " and Much Ado, 
iii. 4. 44 : " Clap us into ' Light o' love,' " etc. 

65. O gravel heart ! O flinty heart ! It is the only instance of 
the adjective in S.; but there is no reason for doubting its authen- 
ticity here, as some have done. 

69. Transport him. " Remove him from one world to another " 
(Johnson). 

81. Whiles. Used by S. interchangeably with while, which 
Pope substitutes here. 

89. Journal. Diurnal (its etymological sense) ; as in Cymb. 
iv. 2. 10 : " your journal course." 

90. The under generatioii. "This lower world" (^Temp. iii. 3. 
54). The folios have "yond" for under, which is Hanmer's 
emendation. Cf. Lear, ii. 2. 170: "Approach, thou beacon to this 



Scene III] Notes 205 

under world," etc. Steevens takes the under generation to be the 
Antipodes, and cites Rich. II. iii. 2. 38. 

loi. By cold gradation and well-balanc'd form. That is, coolly 
and deliberately (not hastily and passionately), and with due re- 
gard to form. The folios have " weale-balanc'd " or "weal bal- 
anc'd ; " corrected by Rowe. Schmidt would retain the old text, 
making it = " with due observance of all forms, which it would be 
against the public interest not to observe." 

104. Convenient. Proper, becoming ; as often. 

105. Commune. Accented by S. on the first syllable, except 
perhaps in W. T. ii. i. 162. 

111. Make her. That is, make for her. 

112. When it is least expected. Johnson remarks: "A better 
reason might have been given. It was necessary to keep Isabella* 
in ignorance, that she might with more keenness accuse the 
deputy." 

120. Close. Silent, or secret. 
122. Shall not. Will not; as not unfrequently. 
124. Injurious. Often used by S. in a stronger sense than now. 
Cf. A. and C. iv. 15. 76 : "the injurious gods," etc. 

130. Covent. Convent. It is an old form of that word, occur- 
ring again in Hen. VIII. iv. 2. 19. Covent Garden in London was 
originally the garden of the convent at Westminster. Rowe and 
some others have needlessly changed it to " Convent," which makes 
a harsh combination with confessor. 

Confessor. Accented by S. on either the first or second syllable, 
according to the measure, 

131. Instance. Intimation. Cf. C. of E.\. \.(i^: 

" Before the always-wind-obeying deep 
Gave any tragic instance of our harm." 

134, 135. If you can pace^ etc. The pointing is that suggested 
by the Cambridge editors. The common reading is : 



2o6 Notes [Act IV 

" If you can, pace your wisdom 
In that good path that I would wish it go." 

136. Your bosom. Your heart's desire. Cf. W. T. iv. 4. 574 : 
"you have your father's bosom there," etc. 

144. To the head. Cf. Much Ado, v. I. 62 : " Claudio, to thy 
head," etc. See also M. N. D.'\. i. 106. S. also has " to his face ; " 
as in A. W. iv. 3. 131, Rich. II. v. 3. 44, etc. 

145. Home and home. Cf. Ham. iii. 3. 29 : " she '11 tax him 
home," etc. 

146. Combined. Bound, pledged. Cf. combinate in iii. i. 214 
above. 

161. Beholding. Many of the modern eds. substitute "behol- 
den," which is not found in S. 

162. He lives not in them. "His character depends not on 
them" (Steevens). 

165. Woodman. Huntsman, with the equivocal sense which the 
word had of hunting the dear rather than the deer. Reed quotes 

The Chances, i. 9 : 

" Well, well, son John, 
I see you are a woodman, and can choose 
Your deer, though it be i' the dark." 

1 78. Medlar. The fruit of the Mespilus Germanica, a tree still 
common in England. Cf A. Y. L. iii. 2. 125, 128. 

Scene IV. — i. Hath disvouched other. Has contradicted the 
others. Cf. J. C. i. 2. 230 : " every time gentler than other," etc. 

6. Redeliver. The 1st folio has " re-liuer," the later folios "de- 
liver." Redeliver is due to Capell. Some have attempted to 
defend " reliver." 

8. And why should we, etc. "It is the conscious guilt of Angelo 
that prompts this question. The reply of Escalus is such as arises 
from an undisturbed mind, that only considers the mysterious con- 
duct of the duke in a political point of view" (Steevens). 

18. Of sort and suit. Of rank (cf. t^^jw. K iv. 7. 142 : "a gentle- 



Scene V] Notes 207 

man of great sort ") and such as owe attendance. By feudal law, 
all vassals were bound to be ready at all times to attend and serve 
their lord ; or, as the expression was, they owed him "• suit and 
service." 

22. Unpregnant. Unready, unapt for business. Cf. Ham. ii. 2 
595 : " unpregnant of my cause ; " the only other instance in S. 
Cf. also the use of pregnant in i. i. ii above. 

27. Tongue. For the verb, cf. Cymb. v. 4. 148 : 

" such stuff as madmen 
Tongue and brain not." 

Daj-es her no. " Bids her not dare to do it " (Clarke), or ad- 
monishes her not to do it. For the use of no, a writer in the 
Monthly Review compares Beaumont and Fletcher, The Chances, iii. 
4 : " I wear a sword to satisfy the world no " (that it is not so) ; 
and A Wife for a Month, iv. : " I am sure he did not, for I charg'd 
him no" (not to do it). Schmidt thinks the meaning may be 
" defies her denial of my assertions." The editors have made 
various changes in the passage, but none is really necessary. 

28. Bears so credent bulk. The first three folios read " bears of 
a credent bulk;" the 4th folio changes "of" to "off." The 
emendation in the text is Dyce's, and seems to me on the whole 
the best that has been suggested. Credent bulk = great credibility, 
or " weight of credit " (Schmidt). 

29. Particular. Private, individual. Cf. Cor. iv. 5. 92, v. 2. 
74, etc. 

Scene V. — i . These letters. " Peter never delivers the letters, 
but tells his story without any credentials. The poet forgot the plot 
which he had formed " (Johnson). 

5. Blench. Start away. Cf. W. T. i. 2. 333 : "Could man so 
blench ? " 

8. Valentinus. The folios have " Valencius," and Pope reads 
"Unto Valentius." Valentinus is Capell's correction. It is 
another form of Valentine in T. G. of V. i. 3. 67. 



2o8 Notes [Act V 

9. Trumpets. Trumpeters ; as in Hen. V. iv. 2. 61 : "I will 
the banner from a trumpet take," etc. 

Scene VI. — 4. To veil full purpose. To cover his full intent. 
Some have read ^vailful and availful, neither of vi^hich is found 
elsewhere in S. 

13. Generous and gravest. That is, most generous, or most 
noble ; the superlative inflection really belonging to both adjec- 
tives. ¥ot generous, cf. 0th. iii. 2. 180, Ham. i. 3. 74, etc. 

14. Hent. Passed, gone out of. Cf. W. T. iv. 3. 133 : "merrily 
hent the stile-a." See also the noun ( = hold, seizure) in Ham. 
iii. 3. 88 : "a more horrid hent." 

Very near up07t, etc. The duke is on the point of entering. 



ACT V 

Scene I. — 7. Yield you forth to. The use of forth with yield 
is somewhat peculiar. The expression may be = call you forth to 
give you public thanks. 

8. Bonds. Obligations. Cf. A. IV. i. 3. 194, Lear, i. I. 95, etc. 

12. Farted. Fortified ; used by S. only here. 

14. Subject. Used in a collective sense ; as in iii. 2. 139 above. 

20. Vail your regard. Bend down your look. Cf. M. of V. i. 
I. 28 : " Vailing her high-top lower than her ribs ; " Ha?}i. i. 2. 
70 : " thy vailed lids," etc. This obsolete vail (from the French 
avaler^ has often been confounded, even by editors and critics, 
with veil, which is of entirely different origin. 

36. Strange. The ellipsis of the adverbial inflection in pairs of 
adverbs is not unusual in S. Cf. Rich. II. i. 3. 3 : " sprightfully 
and bold ; " Rich. III. iii. 4. 50 : " cheerfully and smooth," etc. 
See also on a similar ellipsis in iv. 6. 13 above. 

48. Conjure. Accented by S. on either syllable, without regard 
to the meaning. 



Scene I] Notes 209 

52. Unlike. Unlikely ; as often. So like is often = likely. 

53. Wickedest. For contracted superlatives in S., of. iv. 2. 74. 

54. Absolute. Complete, perfect. Cf. Ham. v. 2. 1 1 1 : "an ab- 
solute gentleman," etc. 

56. Dressings. " Semblance of virtue, habiliments of office " 
(Johnson). G^^rar/^ = characters, in the sense of vi^riting; here 
used figuratively = distinctive marks, outward characteristics. Cf. 
i. I. 27 above. S. uses the word only here. 

63. As e'er I heard, etc. That ever I heard, etc. Capell con- 
jectured " ne'er " for e^er, and some recent editors have shown 
their ignorance of Shakespeare's English by adopting that read- 
ing. " The oddest frame of sense as e'er I heard " is the leading 
construction (for which cf. /. C. i. 2. 33 : " that gentleness . . . 
as I was wont to have ; " and see Id. i. 2. 174), and line 62 is in- 
serted as a parenthetic explanation oi frame of sense. 

Dr. Bucknill, in his Psychology of S. (quoted by Clarke), considers 
the passage an instance of the poet's thorough knowledge of the 
right tests whereby to detect insanity. The duke says that he 
believes Isabella to be mad, and then adds that her madness has 
just that strange appearance of sense and connection which some- 
times, though rarely, is heard from those who are mad. Then she, 
dreading lest her eagerness should give an air of disconnection to 
what she says, bids him " not banish reason for inequality," that is, 
" not believe her devoid of reason on account of incoherency or 
inconsistency." 

64. Do not banish reason, etc. Johnson explains this : "Let 
not the high quality of my adversary prejudice you against me." 

65. Inequality. Inconsistency, improbability ; used by S. no- 
where else. Schmidt doubts whether "improbability" or "par- 
tiality" is the meaning. 

67. And hide the false seems true. If this be what S. wrote, the 
meaning must be " and suppress the false which seems true." Hide 
seems not just the word to use in this sense, but, as Malone sug- 
gests, it may have been chosen for the sake of the antithesis. 

MEASURE FOR MEASURE — 1 4 



2IO Notes [Act V 

72. Probation. Cf. i. 2. 168 above. 

74. As then. As is often thus with expressions of time ; as in 
Temp. i. 2. 70 : " as at that time ; " R. and J. v. 3. 247 : "come 
as this dark night," etc. An V like = \i it please. Cf. ii. i. 169 
above. 

90. To the matter. "German to the matter" (^Ham. v. 2, 165), 
suited to the case. 

94. RefelVd. Refuted (Latin refello') ; used by S. only here. 

98. Concupiscible. "Concupiscent" (Pope's reading). S. uses 
the word nowhere else, and concupiscent and concupiscence not at 
all. We find the noun concupy in T. and C. v. 2. 177. 

100. Remorse. Pity, compassion ; as in ii. 2. 54 above. Con- 
futes = prevails over. 

104. Like. Seeming like truth, likely to be believed. Warbur- 
ton explained /ike as = " seemly ; " but Johnson is clearly right in 
taking the speech to be a wish " that since her tale is true it may 
be believed." 

105. Fond. Foolish. See on ii. 2. 149 and 186 above. 

107. Practice. Plotting, conspiracy; as in 123 below and often. 

108. Imports no reason. Carries with it no reason, is not rea- 
sonable. 

no. Proper to himself. Belonging to himself. Cf. i. 1 . 30 above. 

118. Countenance! Explained by Warburton as = " partial 
favour ; " but it seems rather = " false appearance," as Mason 
makes it. Schmidt puts it under the head of " authority, credit, 
patronage," which may be right. 

127. ^T is. Contemptuous ; as in M. ofV. iii. 3. 18 : "It is the 
most impenetrable cur," etc. Sometimes it expresses affectionate 
familiarity ; as in Macb. i. 4. 58 : " It is a peerless kinsman," etc. 

130. Swinged. Whipped, beaten. Cf. 2 Hen. IV. v. 4. 21 : "I 
will have you as soundly swinged for this," etc. 

131. This'. This is. Cf. Lear, iv. 6. 187, etc. Here the first 
three folios have this', and the 4th folio " this." Rowe reads " this 
is," and the Cambridge ed. " this 's." 



Scene I] Notes 211 

142. Ungot. Not begotten. Cf. imgotten in Hen. V. i. 2. 287. 

145. A temporary meddler. That is, one who meddles with 
temporal matters, or things not concerning his spiritual profession. 
It is the only instance of temporary in S. 

152. Mere reqtiest. Particular request. For the emphatic use 
of mere, cf. M. of V. iii. 2. 265 : " his mere enemy," etc. Here 
Schmidt explains the passage as = " his request was my only 
motive." 

157. Probation. Proof; as in Ham. i. i. 156, 0th. iii. 3. 365, 
etc. 

158. Convented. Summoned, called to appear. Cf. Cor. ii. 2. 
58, Heti. VI II. V. I. 52, etc. 

160. Vulgarly. Before all the people, publicly (Steevens and 
Schmidt). Some explain it as " grossl}^ coarsely;" and Clarke 
thinks it combines both meanings. 

166. Impartial. Taking no part; as in V. and A. 748 : "the 
impartial gazer." Malone shows that impartial was sometimes 
used in the sense oi partial ; but there is no necessity for explain- 
ing it so here. 

200. Just. See on iii. i. 67 above. 

203. Abuse. Deception, or delusion. Cf. Haiu. iv. 7. 51, etc. 
Some make it = imposition. 

210. Garden-house. Summer-house ; often, as Malone shows by 
quotations from contemporaneous writers, the scene of intrigue. 

217. Her promised proportions, &\.z. " Her fortune, which was 
promised proportionate to mine, fell short of the compositioit, that 
is, contract or bargain" (Johnson). Proportion, however, may be 
simply = portion ; as in T. G. of V. ii. 2>' Z'' "I have received my 
proportion." See also Per. iv. 2. 29. 

219. Disvalued. Depreciated ; the only instance of the word 
in S. 

221. Spake. For the past tense after since, cf. Hen. V. iv. 7. 
58 : "I was not angry since I came to France." See also A. and 
C. i. 3. I, Cymb. iv. 2. 190, etc. 



212 Notes [Act V 

230. Confixed. Fixed ; used by S. nowhere else. 

234. Informal. Insane ; as formal was = sane. Cf. C. of E. v. 

1. 105 : "To make of him a formal man again." S. uses informal 
only here. 

235. More mightier. Double comparatives and superlatives are 
frequent in S. and contemporary writers. 

237. Practice. Plot, conspiracy; as in 107 and 123 above. 

238. To your height of pleasure. As much as you please. 

240. Coj7ipact. Leagued, united in conspiracy ; as in Lear, ii. 

2. 125 : 

" When he, compact, and flattering his displeasure, 
Tripp'd me behind." 

243. SeaVd in approbation ? " Approved, and sealed m testimony 
of that approbation, and, like other things so sealed, no more to be 
called in question" (Johnson). 

253. To hear this ?natter forth. " To hear the further process of 
the matter" (Schmidt) ; or "hear it to the end " (Johnson). 

258. Throughly. Thoroughly ; the only form in S. 

261. Cucullus non facit monachwn. "All hoods make not 
monks," as it is translated in Hen. VIII. iii. i. 23. The Latin 
is quoted again in T. N. i. 5. 62. Cf. Promos and Cassandra, 
Pt, I. iii, 6 : " A holie Hoode makes not a Frier devoute." 

265. Enforce. Urge, give the weight of your testimony con- 
cerning. 

278. Light. A word on which S. is fond of quibbling. Cf. M, 
of V. V. I. 129 : 

" Let me give light, but let me not be light, 
For a light wife doth make a heavy husband." 

See also Id. ii. 6. 42, iii. 2. 91, L. L. L. v. 2. 26, etc. 

291. Respect to your great place ! etc. This seems to be spoken 
with a touch of irony. Malone suspected that a line had been lost 
before this ; but the connection is clear enough : yes, I know 
where I am, and the respect due to your office at least. 



Scene I] Notes 213 

300. Retort your manifest appeal. "To refer back to Angelo 
the cause in which you appealed from Angelo to the duke " 
(Johnson). Schmidt makes retort — reject. Herford says : " not 
merely reject, but forcibly turn back upon itself by causing it to be 
addressed to the man whose crime was the subject of it." 

307. His proper ear. His own ear. See on i. 2. 129 above. 

310. Touze. Pull, tear. Cf. W. T. iv. 4. 760. 

315. Nor here provincial. Nor under the jurisdiction of this 
ecclesiastical province. 

318. The stew. Apparently = the cauldron ; with perhaps an 
allusion to stew = brothel, as some suggest. Steevens compares 
Macb. iv. i. 19 : "Like a hell-broth boil and bubble." 

320. The forfeits in a barber's shop. "Those shops were places 
of great resort, for passing away time in an idle manner. By way 
of enforcing some kind of regularity, and perhaps at least as much 
to promote drinking, certain laws were usually hung up, the trans- 
gression of which was to be punished by specific forfeitures. It is 
not to be wondered that laws of that nature were as often laughed 
at as obeyed" (Nares). Dr. Kenrick has given some specimens of 
XhesQ forfeits — as, for instance, 

" Who rudely takes another's turn 
A forfeit mug may manners learn ; " 
and 

" Who checks the barber in his tale 
Must pay for each his pot of ale." 

According to Steevens, these are forgeries, but Staunton thinks 
they may be authentic. Henley remembered to have seen such 
forfeits in Devonshire (printed like "King Charles's Rules"), but 
could not recollect any of them. Marshall quotes a manuscript 
note from his copy of the 4th folio : " It is a custom in the shops 
of all mechanicks to make it a forfeiture for any stranger to use or 
take up the tools of their trade. In a Barber's shop especially, 
when heretofore Barbers practis'd the under parts of surgery their 



214 Notes [Act V 

Instruments being of a nice kind, and their shops generally full of 
Idle people " [a written list was displayed i] " shewing what par- 
ticular forfeiture was required for meddling." 

342. Close. Come to an agreement, make his peace. Elsewhere 
it is followed by %vith, but the sense is the same. Cf. W. T. iv. 4. 
830,/. C. iii. I. 202, 2 Hen. IV. ii. 4. 354, etc. 

347. Giglots. Wantons ; spelt " giglets " in the old editions. 
Cf. the adjective in i Hen. VI. iv. 7. 41 : " giglot wench ; " and 
Cymb. iii. i. 31 : "O giglot fortune ! " 

348. Companion. Used contemptuously (= fellow) ; as in 
J. C. iv. 3. 138: "Companion, hence!" 2 Hen. VI. ii. 4. 132: 
"I scorn you, scurvy companion; " and 2 Hen. IV. iv. 10. 33: 
"Why, rude companion," etc. It is found in this sense in Smol- 
lett's Roderick Randoin (1748): "Scurvy companion! Saucy 
tarpaulin ! Rude, impertinent fellow ! " 

354. Sheep-biting. Explained by Schmidt as "morose, surly, 
malicious ; " but according to Dyce, it was a cant term for thiev- 
ing. Cf. sheep-biter in T. N. ii. 5. 6. 

Be hanged an hour ! This seems to have been a cant phrase; 
an hour having no particular meaning but used to emphasize the 
expression. Gifford, in a note on Ben Jonson, quotes from an old 
madrigal " What, piper, ho ! be hanged awhile ! " which he com- 
pares with A. Y. L.\. I. 38 : " and be naught awhile ! " He adds : 
" It is too much, perhaps, to say that the words aiz hour, awhile, 
are pure expletives, but it is sufficiently apparent that they have no 
perceptible influence on the exclamations to which they are sub- 
joined. . . . They are, in short, pithy and familiar maledictions, 
and cannot be better rendered than in the words of Warburton, ' A 
plague, or a mischief, on you ! ' " Several changes have been made 
by the editors. 

364. Do thee office ? Do thee service. 

370. My passes. My proceedings, or acts ; used \\Ss.& passages in 
T. N. iii. 2, 77, I Hen. IV. iii. 2. 8, etc. 

- 1 There is a hiatus here in the MS. 



Scene I] Notes 215 

378. Which consuniviate. Which being consummated. For the 
form, cf. dedicate in ii. 2. 154 above. 

383. Advertising and holy. " Attentive and faithful " (Johnson) . 
Advertising is rather =: counselling, instructing ; as in i. i. 41 above. 
Holy apparently refers to his having acted the part of a priest. 

386. Fain'd. Made labour and trouble for. Cf. painful = 
laborious, in Temp. iii. i. i, Z. Z. Z. ii. i. 23, etc. 

388. Free. Liberal, generous. 

392. Remonstrance. "Demonstration, manifestation" (Schmidt); 
the only instance of the word in S. Dyce cites from Arrowsmith's 
Shakespeare's Editors and Com??tentators, the following quotations : 
Barjaabe Barnes, The DiviPs Charter , 1607: "Your sonne shall 
make remonstrance of his valour ; " W. Barclay, The Lost Lady, 
1039 : •< ^j^]^ 3^12 remonstrances 

Of love," etc. ; 
Taylor, Sermons, 1653 : " manifested in such visible remonstrances ; " 
Smith, Posthumous Sermons, 1 744: "to make remonstrance and 
declaration of what he thinks." 

396. Brained my purpose. " Knocked my design on the head " 
(Johnson). 

401. Salt. Lustful ; as in A. and C. ii. i. 21 : "salt Cleopatra," 
etc. 

405. Of promise-breach. Hanmer reads "in promise-breach;" 
but the "confusion of construction " is not unlike others in S. 

408. His proper tongue. His own tongue. Cf. 307 above. 

411. Quit. Requite ; as in 496 below. 

Measure still for measure. Cf. 3 Hen. VL. ii. 6. 54 : " Measure 
for measure must be answered." It seems to have been a common 
phrase, Steevens cites ^ Warning for Fair Women, 1599: — 

" Then triall now remaines, as shall conclude, 
Measure for measure, and lost blond for bloud." 

413. Denies thee vantage. " Will avail thee nothing " (Malone). 
Wouldst = shouldst. 



2i6 Notes [Act V 

423. Confutation. This is the reading of the 1st folio, for which 
the 2d substitutes " confiscation," which has been generally adopted. 
But confutation is probably right. See the New Shak. Soc. Trans- 
actions, 1880-86: "Although the substantive confutatio, convic- 
tion, was unknown, there were examples of the post-classical use of 
the verb confutare, to convict. In Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. xxvi. 
cap. 3, and the Theodosian Code, lib. xi. tit. viii. respectively, the 
past participles confutatos and confutatus occur, the context show- 
ing that in both cases they bear the meaning of convicted. 

" Moreover, as Angelo's crime was murder, not treason, convic- 
tion would be the proper English term for expressing the antece- 
dent cause of his forfeiture. ' Lands are forfeited upon attainder, 
and not before ; goods and chattels are forfeited by conviction ' 
(Blackstone's Commentaries, iv. 387, ed. 1873). 

"There was another possible meaning for confutation. The 
Catholicon Anglicum, p. 263, has : * to Ouer come ; confundere, 
fundere, confutare, debellare,' etc. Now apply this definition 
metaphorically to Angelo's circumstances, and it might be said 
that he had been vanquished in single combat with his accuser 
Isabel. We, having no trial by battle, by duel of accuser and 
accused, which was frequent in early days, forget that overcoming 
your adversary was in fact convicting him of the crime of which 
you accused him, or he you. The addition of the meaning 
' convict ' to confutare, overcome, would follow as a matter of 
course." 

424. Widow you. Dower you; the only instance of this sense 
in S. 

427. Definitive. Resolved ; the only instance of the word in S. 
He uses definite once (in Cymb. i. 6. 43) and in the same sense. 

433. Importune. For the accent, see on i. i. 56 above. Sense = 
both reason and feeling (Johnson). 

434. Fact. Deed, crime. See on iv. 2. 137 above. 

451. His act did not d'ertake his bad intent. Steevens quotes 
Macb. iv. i. 145: — 



Scene I] Notes 217 

" The flighty purpose never is o'ertook 
Unless the deed go with it." 

452. Must be buried, etc. " Like the traveller, who dies on his 
journey, is obscurely interred, and thought of no more" (Steevens). 

464. After more advice. On further consideration. Cf. M. of V. 
iv. 2. 6, T. of S. i. I. 117, etc. 

467. What ^s he? Who is he? See on iv. 2. 129 above. 

483. Quit. Acquit, forgive. Cf. A. Y. L. iii. i. \i, A. W.v. 3. 
300, etc. 

485. Advise him. Give him spiritual counsel. 

490-493. If he be like your brother, etc. Marshall (" Henry 
Irving" ed.) gives the passage thus: — 

" If he be like your brother, for his sake 
Is he pardon'd, — {^Claudio discovers himself to Isabella — she rushes 

into his arms, and then kneels to Angelo'\ — and, for your lovely 

sake; 
Give me your hand, {raising- her] and say you will be mine, 
He is my brother too : [taking Claudio's hand] but fitter time for that." 

His note upon it is as follov^s: "In the 1st folio these lines stand 
thus (without any stage direction) : — 

' Is he pardon'd and for your louelie sake 
Giue me your hand, and say you will be mine, 
He is my brother too. But fitter time for that.' 

The awkveardness of the rhyme of line 491 is very manifest; and 
various emendations have been attempted. Hanmer reads He 'j 
pardoned, and rearranges the next two lines thus : — 

' Give me your hand, say you '11 be mine, and he 's 
My brother too.' 

Capell proposed : * Is he too pardon'd ? ' to which Dyce very justly 
objects because of the too in the next line ; and prints, apparently 
on his own responsibility, * Then is he pardon'd.' It is easy to sup- 
ply an extra syllable to make the line more rhythmical ; I would 
suggest So rather than Then, but I should prefer to read ^ He is 



21 8 Notes [Act V 

pardon'd,' letting the pause supply the place of the next syllable, 
but that the author seems to have wished to avoid the recurrence 
of He is at the beginning of two lines so close together. The dra- 
matic force of the passage requires that the his in line 490 and the 
your in line 491 should be slightly accentuated. 

" The first important point to be considered is when does Isabella 
recognize Claudio? As the text stands, without any stage-direction, 
it would appear that Isabella took no notice whatever of her brother 
when she finds he is alive ; but, as has been pointed out by other 
commentators, Shakespeare wrote for the stage, and this recogni- 
tion of Claudio could easily take place in action without any spoken 
words. In the acting version it takes place after the words Is he 
pardoned, and Isabella is made to say O, my dear brother ! The 
next two and a half lines of the Duke's speech are omitted, and he 
resumes * By this Lord Angelo perceives he 's safe.' 

" This, of course, gets rid of all difficulty, but to take such liberties 
with the text here is scarcely necessary. As the passage is arranged 
in our text, we imagine that Claudio — who is on the right side of 
the stage by the side of the Provost — having thrown off his dis- 
guise, turns round to Isabella at the word pardon'd ; she interrupts 
the Duke by rushing across him to embrace her brother ; and then, 
remembering herself, kneels to express her respectful gratitude. The 
Duke continues his interrupted sentence, and raises her from her 
knees, placing her on the left side of him. He then speaks the 
next line (492) holding her hand in his ; and, at the words He is 
my brother too, turns to Claudio, giving him his hand as a confirma- 
tion of his pardon. The arrangement of the punctuation, adopted 
in our text, slightly alters the sense of the passage as printed by 
most modern editors; the words and for your lovely sake meaning 
that Claudio has been pardoned — as undoubtedly he was — chiefly 
for Isabella's sake. But, as the passage is usually punctuated, these 
words would mean that for Isabella's lovely sake, if she gave the 
Duke her hand, then he would consider Claudio his brother ; but 
surely, in that case, the \noxAs, for your lovely sake are redundant ; 



Scene I] Notes 219 

for what the Duke means to say is that, if Isabella will marry him, 
he will look upon Claudio as his brother. In any case the last sen- 
tence must be elliptical in its construction, being equivalent to ' Jf 
you will give me your hand [in marriage], then he is my brother 
too.'" 

492. Give me your hand. That is, if you give me your hand. 

496. Quits you %vell. Turns out well for you. 

497. Her worth worth yours. " Her value is equal to your value, 
she is not unworthy of you" (Johnson). 

498. Apt remission. Readiness to forgive. 

499. In place. Present; as in T. of S. i. 2. 157, 3 Hen. VI. iv. 
I. ft)3, etc. 

501. Luxury. Lust; the only meaning in S. 

504. According to the trick. According to the fashion, after the 
manner of young fellows. See on iii. i. 113 above. 

510. If any woman'' s wrong' d. The folio has "woman;" cor- 
rected by Hanmer. The Cambridge ed. reads, " Is any woman," 
etc. 

513. Nuptial. See on iii. i. 216 above. 

521. Forfeits. Penalties. Lucio is let off more easily than some 
appear to suppose. Forfeits here must refer to the whipping and 
hanging. 

523. Marrying a punk, etc. There is a reference here to the 
ancient punishment of the. peine forte et dure, or pressing to death 
by heavy weights laid on the body. Cf. Much Ado, iii. i. 76, 
Rich. II. iii. 4. 72, etc. It is suggested in a letter in the Athenceum 
of Feb. 23, 1884, signed H. C. Coote, that Shakespeare had also in 
mind an Italian law, in force during his lifetime in the States of the 
Church, by which a criminal could be released from the penalty of 
his crime on marrying a courtesan. In Prof. Fabio Gori's Archivio 
Storico, Artistico, Archeologico, e Letter ario (Spoleto, Tip. Bassani), 
vol. iii. pp. 220, 221, is given, says Mr. Coote, "the petition of a 
Sienese courtesan named Caterina de Geronime, living at Rome, to 
the governor of the city. It has been extracted from the public 



220 Notes [Act V 

records of Rome, and may therefore be fully relied upon for truth 
and authenticity. This petition {supplied), which is dated the 9th 
of February, 1611, sets forth that the lady has followed her profes- 
sion for these twenty years (' sono 20 anni che sta in peccato ') 
and now wishes to reform (* Hora si trova in volonta et \jic\ fermo 
proposito di levarsi di peccato, et \jic\ viver da donna dabene et 
'[sic\ christianamente '). She then goes on to state that Nicolo de 
Rubeis {i.e. de Rossi) di Assisi, alias Gattarello, who has been 
accused, though quite unjustly, of being a cheat at cards ('falso 
gioiatore'), he never having had such things as cards or dice in his 
possession, has been, through the persecution of his enemies, con- 
demned to exile from Rome and the States of the Church. The 
poor petitioner (* povera oratrice ') has put up the banns between 
herself and the said Nicolo in the church of S. Lorenzo in Lucina, 
and she implores his excellency the governor to remit to Nicolo his 
said exile, inasmuch as he wishes to relieve her from sin, which 
besides, she adds, will be a pious work. The governor has noted 
upon the memorial ' Concedatur.' Whatever may have been the 
value of the poor woman's opinion of her friend Nicolo, there can 
be no doubt that she has represented the criminal law of the States 
of the Church with perfect accuracy, and that law was probably not 
confined to the Papal dominions. Some wandering Englishman had 
doubtless heard of it, and told the poet, who, as we know, thirsted 
after all sorts of knowledge, and he afterwards applied it, as we 
have seen, to heighten the local colour of his play." 

526. She. For a wonder, not " corrected " by Pope to her. See 
on iii. I. 215 above. 

530. Gratulate. To be gratulated, gratifying. For the form, 
see on 378 above. Hanmer reads "execute" for executed m 522. 

Mrs. Jameson, in her closing comments on the play, remarks 
(and I am inclined to agree with her) : 

"Of all the characters, Isabella alone has our sympathy. But 
though she triumphs in the conclusion, her triumph is not produced 



Scene I] Notes 221 

in a pleasing manner. There are too many disguises and tricks, too 
many ' by-paths and indirect crooked ways,' to conduct us to the nat- 
ural and foreseen catastrophe, which the duke's presence through- 
out renders inevitable. This duke seems to have a predilection for 
bringing about justice by a most unjustifiable succession of false- 
hoods and counterplots. He really deserves Lucio's satirical desig- 
nation, who somewhere styles him ' the fantastical duke of dark 
corners.' But Isabella is ever consistent in her pure and upright 
simplicity, and, in the midst of this simulation, expresses a charac- 
teristic disapprobation of the part she is made to play : 

» ' To speak so indirectly I am loath ; 

I would say the truth.' 

" She yields to the supposed friar with a kind of forced docility, 
because her situation as a religious novice, and his station, habit, 
and authority, as her spiritual director, demand this sacrifice. In 
the end we are made to feel that her transition from the convent to 
the throne has but placed this noble creature in her natural sphere ; 
for though Isabella as Duchess of Vienna could not more command 
our highest reverence than Isabella the novice of St. Clare, yet 
a wider range of usefulness and benevolence, of trial and action, 
was better suited to the large capacity, the ardent affections, the 
energetic intellect, and firm principle of such a woman as Isabella 
than the walls of a cloister. The philosophical duke observes in 
the very first scene : 

' Spirits are not finely touch'd 
But to fine issues, nor Nature never lends 
The smallest scruple of her excellence 
But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines 
Herself the glory of a creditor, 
Both thanks and use.' 

"This profound and beautiful sentiment is illustrated in the 
character and destiny of Isabella. She says, of herself, that ' she 



222 Notes [Act V 

has spirit to act whatever her heart approves;' and what her heart 
approves we know." 

Schlegel takes much the same view of the Duke. He says : 
" The duke acts the part of the monk naturally, even to decep- 
tion ; he unites in his person the wisdom of the priest and the 
prince. Only in his wisdom he is too fond of roundabout ways ; 
his vanity is flattered with acting invisibly like an earthly provi- 
dence ; he takes more pleasure in overhearing his subjects than 
governing them in the customary way of princes. As he ultimately 
extends a free pardon to all the guilty, we do not see how his 
original purpose, in committing the execution of the laws to other 
hands, of restoring their strictness, has in any wise been accom- 
plished. The poet might have had this irony in view, that of the 
numberless slanders of the duke, told him by the petulant Lucio, 
in ignorance of the person whom he is addressing, that at least 
which regarded his singularities and whims was not wholly without 
foundation. It is deserving of remark that Shakespeare, amidst 
the rancour of religious parties, takes a delight in painting the con- 
dition of a monk, and always represents his influence as beneficial. 
We find in him none of the black and knavish monks, which an 
enthusiasm for Protestantism, rather than poetical inspiration, has 
suggested to some of our modern poets. Shakespeare merely gives 
his monks an inclination to busy themselves in the affairs of others, 
after renouncing the world for themselves ; with respect, however, 
to pious frauds, he does not represent them as very conscientious. 
Such are the parts acted by the monk in Romeo and Juliet^ and 
another in Much Ado about Nothing, and even by the duke, whom, 
contrary to the well-known proverb, the cowl seems really to make 
a monk." 



APPENDIX 

Whetstone's " Promos and Cassandra " 

The title of this play is as follows : " The right excellent and 
famous Historye of Projnos and Cassandra : divided into two 
Commical Discourses. In the first Part is shewn, The unsuffer- 
able Abuse of a lewd Magistrate ; The vertuous Behaviours of a 
chaste Ladye ; The uncontrouled Lewdhness of a favoured Curti- 
SAN : And the undeserved estimation of a pernicious Parasyte. 
In the second part is discoursed, The perfect magnanimity of a 
noble King, In checking Vice and favouring Vertue : Wherein is 
shown The Ruin and overthrow of dishonest practices : With the 
advancement of upright dealings. The Work of George Whet- 
stone, Gent." 

In the dedication the author is nothing if not critical, condemn- 
ing for sundry reasons the dramatic tastes of the chief literary 
nations of Europe, his own not excepted. He says: "At this 
daye, the Italian is so lascivious in his Commedies, that honest 
hearers are greeved at his actions ; the Frenchman and Spatiiarde 
folows the Italians humor : the Germaine is too holye ; for he 
presents on every common stage what Readers should pronounce 
in Pulpets. The Englishman, in this qualitie, is most vaine, indis- 
crete, and out of order : he first groundes his worke on impossibili- 
ties : then in three howers rounes he throwe the world : marryes, 
gets children, bringeth Gods from Heaven, and fetcheth divels 
from Hell." But his greatest objection to English dramatists is 
that they do not make the speech of each character appropriate to 
it, but use one order of speech for all kinds of persons. His 
theories, however, are better than his practice. 

223 



224 Appendix 

The outline of the comedy, as given by the author or the pub- 
lisher in the "Argument of the Whole History" prefixed to the 
play, is as follows : — 

" In the cyttie of Julio (sometimes vnder the dominion of Cor- 
uinus, Kinge of Hungarie and Boemia) there was a law, that what 
man so euer committed adultery should lose his head, and the 
woman offender should weare some disguised apparel during her 
life, to make her infamouslye noted. This seuere lawe, by the 
fauour of some mercifull magistrate, became little regarded vntill 
the time of Lord Promos auctority ; who conuicting a yong gentle- 
man named Andrugio of incontinency, condemned both him and 
his minion to the execution of this statute. Andrugio had a very 
vertuous and beawtiful gentlewoman to his sister, named Cassan- 
dra : Cassandra to enlarge her brothers life, submitted an humble 
petition to the Lord Promos : Promos regarding her good be- 
hauiours, and fantasying her great beawtie, was much delighted 
with the sweete order of her talke ; and doying good, that euill 
might come thereof, for a time he repryu'd her brother ; but, 
wicked man, tourning his liking vnto vnlawfull lust, he set downe 
the spoile of her honour raunsome for her brothers life. Chaste 
Cassandra, abhorring both him and his sute, by no perswasion 
would yeald to this raunsome : but in fine, wonne with the impor- 
tunitye of hir brother (pleading for life) vpon these conditions she 
agreede to Promos ; first that he should pardon her brother, and 
after marry her. Promos, as feareles in promisse as carelesse in 
performance, with sollemne vowe sygned her conditions: but 
worse than any infydel, his will satisfyed, he performed neither the 
one nor the other ; for, to keepe his aucthoritye vnspotted with 
fauour, and to preuent Cassandraes clamors, he commaunded the 
gayler secretly to present Cassandra with her brothers head. The 
gayler, with ^ the outcryes of Andrugio, abhorryng Promos lewde- 
nes, by the prouidence of God prouided thus for his safety. He 
presented Cassandra with a felon's head newlie executed, who 

1 Probably there is some misprint or omission here. 



Appendix 225 

(being mangled, knew it not from her brother's, by the gayler who 
was set at libertie) was so agreeued at this trecherye, that, at the 
pointe to kyl her selfe, she spared that stroke to be auenged of 
Promos : and deuisyng a way, she concluded to make her fortunes 
knowne vnto the kinge. She (executinge this resolution) was so 
highly fauoured of the king, that forthwith he hasted to do justice 
on Promos : whose judgement was, to marrye Cassandra, to repaire 
her erased ^ honour ; which donne, for his hainous offence he 
should lose his head. This maryage solempnised, Cassandra, tyed 
in the greatest bondes of affection to her husband, became an 
earnest suter for his life : the kinge (tendringe the generall benefit 
of the common weale before her special ease, although he fauoured 
her much,) would not graunt her sute. Andrugio (disguised 
amonge the company) sorrowing the griefe of his sister, bewrayde 
his safetye, and craued pardon. The kinge, to renowne the ver- 
tues of Cassandra, pardoned both him and Promos." 

How little Shakespeare was really indebted to this earlier play 
may be inferred from the following specimen of it, given by Knight 
(with the spelling modernized), which may be compared with the 
corresponding scene (ii. 2) oi Measure for Measure : — 

Promos with the Sheriff, and their Officers 

Pro. 'T is strange to think what swarms of unthrifts live 
Within this town, by rapine, spoil, and theft, 
That, were it not that justice oft them grieve, 
The just man's goods by rufflers should be reft. 
At this our 'size are thirty judg'd to die. 
Whose falls I see their fellows smally fear. 
So that the way is, by severity 
Such wicked weeds even by the roots to tear. 
Wherefore, sheriff, execute with speedy pace 
The damned wights, to cut off hope of grace. 

Sher. It shall be done. 

Cass, [to herself]. O cruel words ! they make my heart to bleed : 

1 Broken, damaged. 
MEASURE FOR MEASURE — 1 5 



226 ' Appendix 

Now, now I must this doom seek to revoke, 

Lest grace come short when starved is the steed, — 

\Kneeling, speaks to Promos. 
Most mighty lord, a worthy judge, thy judgment sharp abate ; 
Vail thou thine ears to hear the 'plaint that wretched I relate. 
Behold the woeful sister here of poor Andrugio, 
Whom though that law awardeth death, yet mercy do him show. 
Weigh his young years, the force of love which forced his amiss, 
Weigh, weigh that marriage works amends for what committed is. 
He hath defil'd no nuptial bed, nor forced rape hath mov'd ; 
He fell through love who never meant but wife the wight he lov'd. 
And wantons sure to keep in awe these statutes first were made, 
Or none but lustful lechers should with rig'rous law be paid. 
And yet to add intent thereto is far from my pretence ; 
I sue with tears to win him grace that sorrows his offence. 
Wherefore herein, renowned Lord, justice with pity pays ; 
Which two, in equal balance weigh'd, to heaven your fame will raise. 

Pro. Cassandra, leave off thy bootless suit; by law he hath been 
tried — 
Law found his fault, law judg'd him death. 

Cass. Yet this may be replied : 

That law a mischief oft permits to keep due form of law — 
That law small faults, with greatest, dooms, to keep men still in awe. 
Yet kings, or such as execute regal authority. 
If 'mends be made, may over-rule the force of law with mercy. 
Here is no wilful murder wrought which asketh blood again ; 
Andrugio's fault may valued be, marriage wipes out his stain. 

Pro. Fair dame, I see the natural zeal thou bear'st to Andrugio, 
And for thy sake (not his desert) this favour will I show : 
I will reprieve him yet a while and on the matter pause ; 
To-morrow you shall licence have afresh to plead his cause. 
Sheriff, execute my charge, but stay Andrugio 
Until that you in this behalf more of my pleasure know. 

Sher. I will perform your will. 

Cass. O most worthy magistrate, myself thy thrall I bind. 
Even for this little light'ning hope which at thy hands I find. 
Now will I go and comfort him which hangs 'twixt death and life. 

{Exit. 



Appendix 227 



Pro. Happy is the man that enjoys the love of such a wife ! 
I do protest her modest words hath wrought in me amaze. 
Though she be fair, she is not deck'd with garish shows for gaze ; 
Her beauty lures, her looks cut off fond suits with chaste disdain; 
O God, I feel a sudden change that doth my freedom chain ! 
What didst thou say? Fie, Promos, fie ! of her avoid the thought : 
And so I will ; my other cares will cure what love has wrought. 
Come away. ' {Exeunt. 



Davenant's "The Law against Lovers" 

Measure for Measure has never been popular on the stage. 
There is no record of any early performance of it before the 
Restoration ; and when theatres were again licensed the only form 
in which it appeared was Davenant's medley of the play and Much 
Ado entitled The Law against Lovers, which was acted in February, 
1762, at Lincoln's Inn Fields. 

Mr. Marshall, who also gives an outline of this worst of all the 
audacious attempts to "improve" Shakespeare, remarks : "What 
amazing devil, as the late Charles Dickens would have said, pos- 
sessed Sir William Davenant to spoil two plays, so different in their 
nature but each so good of its kind, by jumbling them together, 
it is difficult to conceive. It is possible, if the tradition that 
Davenant was Shakespeare's son be true,i that he owed his father 
a grudge for begetting so extremely ill-looking an offspring. If so, 
it must be owned that, in this deformation of two of his father's 
great works, he had his revenge ; for he has succeeded to a marvel 
in destroying all the comedy of Benedick and Beatrice, while at the 
same time he enfeebled the serious and almost tragical interest of 
Measure for Measure. . . . The effect of the introduction of 
Benedick and Beatrice is that they are both entirely deprived 
of the wit and vivacity which characterized them in Much Ado, 

1 That it is not true Halliwell-Phillipps has proved beyond the possi- 
bility of a doubt. 



228 Appendix 

while nearly all of the beautiful poetry of Measure for Measure is 
ruthlessly deformed into the dreariest prose-verse." 

The first act of this monstrous performance follows the story of 
Measure for Measure quite closely in the main incidents. The 
following lines from the Duke's speech to Angelo (i. i) are a 
fair specimen of Davenant's work: — 

" That victory gives me now free leisure to 
Pursue my old design of travelling ; 
Whilst, hiding what I am, in fit disguise, 
I may compare the customs, prudent laws, 
And managements of foreign states with ours." 

The " victory " is that which Benedick has lately won. The scraps 
of Shakespeare from either play, but especially from Much Ado, are 
clumsily brought in. Davenant's additions may be further illus- 
trated by a single extract. After a scene between Benedick 
and Beatrice, Viola, who is the young sister of Beatrice, says to 
Benedick : — 

" Y' are welcome home, my lord. Have you brought 
Any pendants and fine fans from the wars ? 

Benedick. What, my sweet bud, you are grown to a blossom ! 

Viola. My sister has promised me that I shall be 
A woman, and that you shall make love to me, 
When you are old enough to have a wife. 

Benedick. This is not a chip of the old block, but will prove 
A smart twig of the young branch." 

This poor stuff is printed as verse, though it is difficult to believe 
it was ever intended to be anything but prose. "In the second 
act it is Benedick that pleads for the life of Claudio. Again 
the scenes between Benedick and Beatrice that are dragged in 
serve merely to encumber the action without lightening the play. 
Davenant preserves the scene between Isabella and Angelo, care- 
fully injuring if not utterly destroying, wherever he can, the poetry 
of Shakespeare's language. The second act concludes with a 



Appendix 229 

mutilated version of Angelo's soliloquy in act ii. scene 4 of Shake- 
speare's play, the last four lines of which are thus improved : — 

' The numerous subjects to a well-wisht King 
Quit their own home, and in rude fondness to 
His presence crowd, where their unwelcome love 
Does an offence, and an oppression prove.' 

The third act goes straight on with the same scene (from Shake- 
speare), beginning with the entrance of Isabella, This is followed 
by a long scene between Benedick and Beatrice, in which Beatrice 
urges Benedick to steal his brother's signet, and so seal the pardon 
of Juliet and Claudio. Then Viola comes in and sings a song, 
after which Lucio and Balthazar persuade Beatrice that Benedick 
is in love with her. The extraordinary dulness of this scene, com- 
pared with the one it is founded on in Much Ado, is decidedly 
original. Then we go back to Measure for Measure, and have 
a scene between Claudio and Isabella in prison ; next to which 
comes an original scene, in which Benedick brings Beatrice the 
signed pardon for Juliet and Claudio, which he has obtained 
through Escalus. The act ends with a short scene in the prison 
between Viola and Juliet, her cousin. In this scene, short as it 
is, Davenant's genius will burst out, as witness the following de- 
scription by the innocent little Viola when speaking of the Jailor : — 

' The fellow looks like a man boil'd 
In pump-water. Is he married ? ' 

The beginning of the next act is apparently original. It appears 
that the Friar (that is, the disguised Duke) is thwarting Benedick's 
scheme for the release of Juliet and Claudio, so he and Beatrice 
relieve their feelings by calling in Viola, who dances ; the stage- 
direction being ^ Enter Viola dancing a saraband, awhile with 
castanietos.^ This is the scene which so much pleased the sapi- 
ent and tasteful Pepys, who says, under date of February i8th, 
1661-62 : * Saw The Law against Lovers, a good play, and well 



230 Appendix 

performed, especially the little girl's (whom I never saw act before) 
dancing and singing ; and were it not for her the losse of Roxalana 
would spoil the house.' Then we have a scrap of Pompey in the 
shape of the Fool, and another scrap from Shakespeare in a scene 
between the Duke and Lucio ; and then a scene between Juliet 
and Isabella in prison, quite original, in which the author bursts 
into poetry and, shaking off the trammels of blank verse, indulges 
in rhymed couplets. Juliet thinks that Isabella might make the 
sacrifice asked by Angelo for Claudio's sake, to which Isabella 
pointedly answers that she had better make it herself : — 

' The good or ill redemption of his life 
Doth less concern his sister than his wife.' 

Then we have more original elephantine playfulness between Bene- 
dick and Beatrice. Then, after a brief return to Shakespeare in a 
scene between the Duke, Provost, and Barnardine, we have an 
original scene in which Claudio gives the Fool a thousand pieces 
of gold as a bribe to help Juliet to escape in a page's dress. He 
declines to attempt to escape himself. Juliet, not to be outdone 
in generosity, sends her Maid with a proposal to Claudio to escape 
by a window in her room with the connivance of the Provost's wife, 
but she is not to escape herself. Then we have a sort of parody in 
rhymed verse of the great scene between Angelo and Isabella, in 
which we find such gems of poetry as the following speech of 

Isabella : — 

' Catch fools in nets without a covert laid ; 
Can I, who see the treason, be betray'd? ' 

The effect of this exquisite couplet upon Angelo is to make him 
completely change his tone, and to become suddenly virtuous, 
declaring that all that had happened before was only his fun. 
He never meant that Claudio should die ; he never meant to make 
naughty proposals to Isabella. All that he meant was to propose 
honourable marriage. But Isabella is not to be taken in with these 
beautiful sentiments ; she remarks : — 



Appendix 23 1 

' If it be true, you shall not be believ'd, 
Lest you should think me apt to be deceiv'd.' 

Then she goes out, leaving poor Angelo in a very forlorn condition, 
who comes to the conclusion 

' Because she doubts my virtue I must die ; 
Who did with vicious arts her virtue try.' 

In the fifth act we have more singing, in which Beatrice, Benedick, 
and Viola all take part, supported by the Chorus ; this musical 
entertainment being, as it appears, for the benefit of Angelo, in 
order to rouse him from his supposed anchoritic existence. Then 
we begin to get serious again, and three servants come in, one after 
another, exhorting Angelo to ' Arm, arm, my lord ! ' for his brother 
is in open revolt and is besieging the prison where Claudio and 
Juliet are confined. Now we have a great deal of excitement 
and something like a pantomime rally by all the characters ; and 
the play ultimately ends with the n:iarriage of Angelo and Isabella ! 
They are kept in countenance by two other pairs of betrothed 
lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Juliet. Lucio, 
who gets very waggish towards the end, is inclined to marry the 
Fool's grandmother, but, finding she is dead, decides on remaining 
a bachelor." 

It was well, as Mr. Marshall suggests, to give a somewhat full 
account of this play of Davenant's, " because few persons are 
likely to take the trouble to read it for themselves, and, unless 
one does so, one might be deceived by the praises lavished on this 
contemptible work by contemporary and other critics." 

Another version (or perversion, though not so bad as Davenant's) 
was produced in 1700 by Charles Gildon, with the title. Measure 
for Measure, or Beauty the best Advocate. As in Davenant's play, 
the scene was laid in Turin, and Balthazar is one of the dramatis 
personce ; but all the comic characters, including Lucio, are cut 
out. " The title-page announces that the play was ' Written origi- 
nally by Mr. Shakespear ; and now very much altered ; With ad- 



232 Appendix 

ditions of several Entertainments of Musick.' There were no less 
than four of these Entertainments, with one of which the play con- 
cluded. Genest quotes two lines from the second act, where Angelo 
tells Isabella to meet him at the opera : — 

' Consider on it, and at ten this evening 
If you '11 comply, you '11 meet me at the Opera.' " 

This wretched production does not appear to have been revived ; 
and there is no record of the performance of Shakespeare's play 
after the Restoration until December, 1720. Since that time it has 
seldom been put upon the stage on either side of the Atlantic. 



The Time-Analysis of the Play 

This is summed up by Mr. P. A. Daniel, in his paper " On the 
Times or Durations of the Action of Shakspere's Plays " ( Trans, 
of New Shaks. Soc. 1877-79, p. 139), as follows : — 

" The time of the Play is four days : — 

1. Act I. sc. i. may be taken as a kind of prelude, after which 
some little interval must be supposed in order to permit the new 
governors of the city to settle to their work. The rest of the Play 
is comprised in three consecutive days. 

2. Commences with Act I. sc. ii. and ends in Act IV. sc. ii. 

3. Commences in Act IV. sc. ii. and ends with Act IV. sc. iv. 

4. Includes Act IV. sc. v. and vi. and the whole of Act V., which 
is in one scene only. 

List of Characters in the Play 

The numbers in parentheses indicate the lines the characters 
have in each scene. 

Duke: i. 1(67), 3(51) ; ii.' 3(25) ; iii. 1(141), 2(114) ; iv. 
1(38), 2(91), 3(83), 5(13); V. 1(257). Whole no. 880. 

Angelo: i. 1(12) ; ii. 1(35), 2(85), 4(117) ; iv. 4(29); v. l(43)- 
Whole no, 321. 



Appendix 233 

Escalus: i. i(ii) ; ii. 1(109) J "i* 2(32) ; iv. 4(8) ; v. 1(45). 
Whole no. 205. 

Claudio : i. 2(58) ; iii. 1(54); iv. 2(3). Whole no. 115. 

Lucio: i. 2(54), 4(63); ii- 2(15); iii. 2(101); iv. 3(25); v. 
1(63). Whole no. 321. 

\st Gentleman : i. 2(27). Whole no. 27. 

2d Gentleman : i. 2(11). Whole no. 11. 

Provost: i. 2(3); ii. 1(1), 2(19), 3(12); iii. 1(5), 2(5) ; iv. 
,2(96), 3(17) ; V. 1(13). Whole no. 171. 

Friar Thomas : i, 3(6). Whole no. 6. 

Friar Peter : iv. 5(1), 6(6) ; v, 1(29). Whole no. 36. 

Justice: ii. 1(3). Whole no. 3. 

Elbow: ii. 1(62); iii. 2(19). Whole no. 81. 

Froth: ii. i(ii). Whole no. ii. 

Pompey: i. 2(19); ii. 1(83); iii. 2(16); iv. 2(25), i{ii). 
Whole no. 176. 

Abhorson: iv. 2(12), 3(11). Whole no. 23. 

Barnardine : iv. 3(17). Whole no. 17. 

Servant : ii. 2(4), 4(2). Whole no. 6. 

Boy : iv. i (6) . Whole no. 6. 

Messenger : iv. 2(5). Whole no. 5. 

Isabella: i. 4(27) ; ii. 2(94), 4(78) ; iii. 1(97) ; iv. 1(25), 3(9), 
6(9) ; V. 1(87). Whole no. 426. 

Mariana: iv. 1(13), 6(2) ; v. 1(53). Whole no. 68. 

Juliet: ii. 3(10). Whole no. 10. 

Francisca: i. 4(9). Whole no. 9. 

Mistress Overdone : 1^(128) ; iii. 2(9). Whole no. 37. 
Varrius is on the stage in iv. 5 and v. i. but does not speak. 

In the above enumeration, parts of lines are counted as whole 
lines, making the total in the play greater than it is. The actual 
number of lines in each scene (Globe edition numbering) is as 
follows : i. 1(84), 2(198), 3(54), 4(90) ; ii. i(3cx)),2(i87), 3(42), 
4(188) ; iii. 1(280), 2(296) ; iv. 1(76), 2(226), 3(190), 4(37)» 
5(13), 6(15) ; V. 1(545). Whole no. in the play, 2821. 



INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES 
EXPLAINED 



absolute (= perfect) , 208 

absolute for death, 180 

absolutely resolve you, 
202 

abuse (= deception), 211 

according to the trick, 219 

action all of precept, 197 

advertise (= instruct), 153 

advertising, 215 

advise him, 217 

affect (= like), 154 

affection (= impulse), 180 

after (= at the rate oQ , 
168 

after more advice, 217 

all-hallownd eve, 166 

all-holding, 177 

an 't like, 168 

anchors on Isabel, 175 

angel (play upon?), 175 

appointment, 183 

approbation (= proba- 
tion), 159 

apt remission, 219 

as (of reminder), 177 

as (of time), 210 

as that, 174 

assay (= trial), 187 

athwart, 161 

attempt (= tempt), 202 

aves, 154 

avised, 172 

bared, 202 
bark (= peel), 183 
base appliances, 184 
bastard (= wine) , 190 
bay (in architecture) , 168 
be hanged an hour ! 214 
bear in hand, 163 
bear (reflexive), 161 
becomes as aged, 182 
beholding (= beholden), 
206 



belongings, 152 

bend my speech, 153 

bestowed her on her lam- 
entation, 190 

bite the law by the nose, 
186 

black masks, these, 176 

blench, 207 

blood (= passion), 164 

bonds, 208 

bones (hollow), 156 

boot, with, 75 

borne up, 197 

bosom (= heart's desire) , 
206 

brained my purpose, 215 

brakes of vice, 164 

bravery (= finery), 160 

breeds, 172 

bring (= escort), 154 

brother father, 191 

brown paper, 202 

Bunch of Grapes, 166 

but as, 168 

case (= covering) , 175 
censured (= judged), 163, 

164 
certain (= stable), 181 
character(= writing), 152, 

202 
characts, 209 
China dishes, 166 
circummured, 196 
clack-dish, 192 
clap into prayers, 204 
close (= make his peace) , 

214 
close (= silent), 205 
cold gradation, 205 
combinate, 190 
combined ( = pledged) , 

206 
come in partial, 164 

235 



come your ways, 192 

comes off well, 165 

commission (metre), 154 

common houses, 165 

commune (accent), 205 

compact (= leagued), 212 

companion, 214 

compelled (accent), 176 

complete (accent), 160 

composition (= contract), 
211 

compound (= agree), 198 

concerning her observ- 
ance, 197 

concupiscible, 210 

confessor (accent), 205 

confixed, 212 

confutation, 216 

confutes, 210 

conjure (accent), 208 

conserve (= preserve) ,184 

constantly (= firmly), 196 

consummate, 215 

continue, 167 

contract (accent), 157 

contrarious, 197 

convenient (= proper) , 205 

convented, 211 

countenance, 210 

CO vent (= convent), 205 

credent bulk, 207 

credulous to false prints, 
179 

cry you mercy, 196 

cucullus non facit mona- 
chum, 212 

cunning (= sagacity), 201 

curfew, 199 

dares her no, 207 
deadly sins, the seven, 

186 
death's fool, 181 
dedicate (= dedicated) ,173 



236 Index of Words and Phrases 



defiance (= refusal) , 189 
definitive, 216 
delighted, 186 
denies thee vantage, 215 
denunciation, 157 
deputation, 152 
desperately mortal, 201 
detected (= accused) , 192 
determined. scope, 183 
determines, 153 
detest (= protest) , 166 
die the death, 180 
discover (= uncover) , 187 
dispense with (= excuse), 

188 
dissolution, 193 
disvalued, 211 
disvouched, 206 
do me slander, 169 
do thee office, 214 
dolours (play upon) , 156 
done myself wrong, 155 
draw (play upon), 167 
drawn in, 167 
dressings, 209 
dribber, 159 
dribbling, 159 

edict (accent), 171 
effects (= expressions), 

181 
eld, 182 
emmew, 185 
enforce (=urge), 212 
enshield (= enshielded), 

176 
entertain, 184 
escapes (= sallies), 197 
estimation, 198 
evils (= privies), 173 
exists (=existest), 181 
extirp, 192 

fact (=deed), 201, 216 
fall (= befall), 202 
fall (transitive?), 163 
falsely (= illegally) , 176 
fault and glimpse, 158 
favour (= face) , 201 
favour (play upon), 198 
fear (= affright), 163 
fedary, 178 

fewness and truth, 162 
figure of us, 152 
file (= number), 192 
fine (= punish), 169, 186 



fine issues, 152 

first in question, 153 

flames (of youth), 174 

flourish (= colour) , 197 

flowery tenderness, 184 

foison, 162 

fond (= foolish), 173, 174, 

210 
fondness, 175 
foppery (= folly), 157 
for (= because) , 164 
for the Lord's sake, 204 
for vain, 175 
forfeit (adjective), 193 
forfeits (= penalties) , 219 
forfeits in a barber's shop, 

213 
forted, 208 
Forthright, 204 
fox and lamb skins, 190 
frame (= prepare), 190 
free (= liberal), 215 
French crown, 156 
full line, with, 163 
function, 194 

garden-house, 211 

general (= multitude), 175 

generous and gravest, 208 

giglots, 214 

give fear to use, 163 

glassy essence, 172 

grace, 163 

grace in grace, 155 

grange, 190 

gratulate (= gratifying), 

220 
gravel heart, 204 
greed (verb), 197 
grievous imposition, 159 
groaning, 168 
guards (= facings), 186 
gyves, 198 

had as lief, 153 

hanged, 204 

Hannibal (= cannibal), 

167 
happily (= haply) , 200 
hear this matter forth, 212 
heaven shield, etc., 189 
heavy (= drowsy) , 196 
helmed, 192 
hent, 208 
hide the false seems true, 

209 



his(= its), 196, 200 
hold therefore, 153 
hold you there, 189 
home and home, 206 
hot-house (= bagnio) , 166 
houses in the suburbs, 

156 
how say you? 176 
husband, 192 

if you be remembered, 166 
ignomy, 177 
impartial, 211 
imports no reason, 210 
importune (accent), 154, 

216 
imposition, 159 
in a manifested effect, 201 
in few, 162 
in good time, 189 
in metre, 155 
in my voice, 159 
in our remove, 153 
in place (=present), 219 
in the loss of question, 

. ^77 . 

incertain, 187 

inequality, 209 

influence, 180 

informal (= insane), 212 

Iniquity (= Vice), 167 

injurious, 205 

insensible of mortality, 
201 

instance (= intimation) , 

_ 205 _ 

invention (= imagina- 
tion), 175 

inward (noun), 192 

issues (= purposes), 152 

its, 154 

jade, 168 

journal (= diurnal) , 204 
just (= just so), 153, 211 
Justice or Iniquity, 167 

keep (= dwell) , 160, 180 
know (= reflect) , 164 

lapwing, 162 

leave your snatches, 198 

leavened, 154 

lieger, 183 

life removed, the, 160 

light (play upon), 212 



Index of Words and Phrases 237 



like man new made, 171 
like (= please), 167, 168 
limit, 190 

limited (= appointed) , 201 
lists (= bounds), 150 
longs (= belongs), 170 
lover (feminine), 162 
lower chair ( = easy- 
chair), 166 
luxury (= lust), 219 

make me your story, 

162 
man new made, 171 
me (expletive), 158, 166 
mealed, 199 
mean (= means), 177 
means, 149 
medlar, 206 
meet, 196 
men their creation mar, 

etc., 178 
mere, 211 
mew, 185 

mind of honour, 180 
miscarried (= was lost) , 

190 
moe thousand, 183 
more fitter, 168 
more mightier, 212 
mother (= abbess) , 163 
motions (= impulses) , 163 
mutton on Fridays, 193 
my most stay, 197 
my part in him, 153 
my vouch against you, 179 
mystery (= calling), 198 

not (transposed), 164 
not the wear, 192 
nothing come in partial, 

164 
nothing of your answer, 

176 
nuptial, 190, 219 
nursed by baseness, 181 

of (omitted), 173 

of season, 171 

ofSfenceful, 174 

open room and good for 

winter, 166 
opposite (= opponent), 

158 
other (= others), 206 
out at elbow, 165 



owe (= possess), 163 

pain (= penalty), 177 

pained, 215 

pair of shears between us, 

155 
parcel-bawd, 166 
particular (= private), 207 
passes (= proceedings), 

214 
pass on, 164 
peaches him, 203 
pelting (= paltry), 172 
perdurably, 186 
permissive, 161 
Philip and Jacob, 193 
piled (play upon), 155 
planched, 196 
please (= if it please), 169 
poor duke's constable, 165 
possessed (— informed), 

197 
possession (metre), 157 
practice (= plotting), 210, 

212 
prayers cross, 173 
precise villains, 165 
pre-contract, 197 
prefers itself, 154 
pregnant (= evident) , 164 
pregnant (= ready), 151 
prenzie, 185 
present (= immediate), 

202 
preserved, 173 
pressing to death, 219 
probation (= novitiate), 

210 
probation (= proof), 211 
profanation (blunder) , 165 
profit by, 179 
prolixious blushes, 179 
prompture, 180 
prone, 159 
propagation, 157 
proper (adverb), 152 
proper (=own), 152, 157, 

210, 213, 215 
proportion (= measure), 

155 
proportion (= portion?), 

211 
provincial, 213 
provoke (= invoke), 181 
purchased (= got), 156 
put to know, 150 



puttmg-on, 201 
Pygmalion's images, 191 

qualify (= abate), 199 
question, 177 
quests (=spyings), 197 
quit (= acquit), 217 
quit (= requite), 215 
quit (= turn out), 219 

race (= natural disposi- 
tion), 179 

rack (= distort), 197 

rapier and dagger man, 
203 

ravin down, 157 

rebate, 163 

receive her approbation, 

159 
received (= understood) , 

176 
record (accent), 169 
refelled, 210 
refer yourself to, 190 
regard (= look) , 208 
region (= confinement), 

186 
remonstrance, 215 
remorse (= pity) , 170, 210 
remove (noun), 153 
renouncement, 162 
resolve (= convince) , 202 
resolve (= inform) , 189 
resolved to die, 194 
restrained (= forbidden) , 

176 
retort your appeal, 213 
Russia (trisyllable), 167 

salt (= lustful), 215 

saucy sweetness, 176 

scape, 193 

scope, 157 

sealed in approbation, 212 

See (=Rome), 193 

seedness, 162 

seeming, 179 

seldom when, 199 

sense, 216 

serpigo, 182 

several (= separate), 175 

severe (accent), 169 

shall (= will), 205 

she (= her), 220 

sheep-biting, 214 

shekels (spelling), 173 



238 Index of Words and Phrases 



shrewd (=evil), 168 
shrift, 202 

shy (= demure), 192 
siege (= seat) , 200 
since (with past tense), 

211 
sins, seven deadly, 186 
sith, 161, 197 
skin (verb), 172 
slip of wilderness, 189 
smell of calumny, 179 
snatches, 198 
something (adverb), 154 
soon at night, 163 
sort and suit, 206 
spare heaven, 174 
spirit (monosyllable), 200 
spirits in prison, 174 
splay (=spay), 167 
spleens, 172 
splits (= splittest), 172 
stage (verb), 154 
stagger (= waver), 158 
stand at a guard with, 

161 
stands in record, 169 
starkly, 199 
stays upon, 197 
stead (= help), 161 
stead up, 190 
stew, 213 

stewed prunes, 166 
still (= ever), 186 
straitness, 194 
strange (adverb), 208 
stricture (= strictness), 

160 
stroke, 199 
stuck upon thee, 197 
subject (collective), 208 
subscribe, 177 
success (= issue) , 163 
successive (accent), 171 
sufferance (= suffering), 

184 
supposed (= deposed), 
167 



sweat (= plague), 156 
swinged, 210 

tax (= accuse), 176 
temporary meddler, 211 
terms, 151 
testimonied, 193 
they (= them), 152 
thirsty evil, 157 
this', 210 
this fourteen, 160 
Thomas (of a tapster), 

156 
thrilling, 186 
throughly, 212 
tickle (= ticklish), 159 
tick-tack, 159 
tie the beard, 201 
tilth, 162, 197 
trick (= caprice), 186 
't is (contemptuous), 210 
to the head, 206 
to the matter, 210 
to your height of pleasure, 

212 
tongue (verb), 207 
top (= height), 170 
touze, 213 

trade (= custom), 189 
transport (verb), 204 
trot (contemptuous), 191 
true (= honest), 198 
trumpet (= trumpeter), 

208 
tub, in the, 191 
tun-dish, 193 

under generation, 204 
unfolding star, 202 
ungenitured, 193 
ungot, 211 
unhurtful, 193 
unlike (adverb), 209 
unpitied, 198 
unpregnant, 207 
unquestioned, 154 
unshunned, 191 



unsisting, 200 
unskilfully, 193 
untrussing, 193 
unweighing, 192 
uprighteously, 189 
use and liberty, 163 
use (= habit), 160, 192 
use (= interest), 153 

vail (= lower), 208 
Valentinus, 207 
vastidity, 183 
veil full purpose, 208 
votarist (feminine), 161 
vouch against you, 179 
vulgarly (= publicly). 



waist, come to your, 190 
wanton stings, 163 
warp (= deviate), 152 
well believe this, 170 
well balanced form, 205 
what (=who), 217, 172 
where prayers cross, 173 
whiles, 204 
who (= which), 159 
wholesom'st, 199 
wicked'st, 209 
widow (= dower), 216 
wilderness (= wildness) , 

189 
with full line, 163 
with special soul, 152 
with virtuous season, 173 
woodman (= hunter) , 206 
worm (= serpent), 181 
worn (= put in use), 159 
wot, 166 
wracked, 190 

yare, 199 

year (plural), 168 

yield you forth to, 208 

zodiacs, 158 



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